UFC president Dana White has been in a lot of hot water lately after a video of him hitting his wife.
He’s been getting a lot of warranted backlash from the incident, and now he will be getting more.
White recently announced that he was stripping heavyweight Francis Ngannou of his title and releasing him from the UFC so he could become a free agent. It shocked fans because of how sudden it was, but now Ngannou has spoken out, making White look bad.
White/the UFC and Ngannou couldn’t agree on a fight between Ngannou and Jon Jones, and it wasn’t about the money. He says that money wasn’t the issue because he could have made $8 million and wanted the right to sponsorship, health insurance, and a fighter advocate to represent fighters in meetings.
If money weren’t a problem and those things he wanted, it would make White, and the UFC look horrible because it doesn’t seem like they care about the fighters.
This is something Dana White has been accused of doing for years.
UFC fighters make a pittance relative to the promotion’s revenue, and Dana White has no plans on changing that anytime soon.
The UFC president recently sat down with GQ and pushed back on any calls for him to raise fighter purses.
“Fighters always want to make more money,” White said (2:40 mark). “Boxing has absolutely been destroyed because of money and all the things that go on. It’s never gonna happen while I’m here. Believe me, these guys get paid what they’re supposed to get paid. They eat what they kill. They get a percentage of the pay-per-view buys and the money is spread out amongst all the fighters.
The UFC has historically paid fighters around 20 percent of the company’s revenue. That pales in comparison to athletes in other sports leagues. NFL, NBA and NHL players all make between 48-50 percent of their sport’s revenue. Major League Baseball has a less structured system and varies year-to-year, but it tends to be in a similar percentage range.
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