American veteran Jorge Masvidal, contender for the UFC welterweight title (up to 77 kg), raised the rarely-mentioned topic today about the distribution of money between the promotion and the fighters.
Jorge Masvidal believes the UFC needs to pay the best fighters more money. Masvidal, who helped the UFC sell over a million pay-per-view purchases for his UFC 251 fight against Kamaru Usman, wants more compensation for the number of pay-per-view views he sold. «Gamebred» says he also wants to stand up for other fighters who deserve more money.
“I tell you what, if I had took that first original deal, off that 1.3 [million PPV buys], I would have got table scraps,” Masvidal said, speaking with Yahoo Sports. (via TheMacLife) “It’s just not fair. I say this for me, not just for me but all my brothers and sisters that are like, ‘Oh I finally got to pay-per-view’… It’s not what you think.”
According to Jorge Masvidal, the entire pay-per-view model needs to be changed. Masvidal points to boxing and points out the fact that the best boxers make a lot more money than the best MMA fighters because the UFC takes on a significant chunk of pay-per-view sales.
“The UFC have to open those doors, they have to start giving bigger margins to guys that are bringing in the pay-per-view,” Masvidal said. “The UFC always say, ‘Well look at an undercard boxer makes compared to our opening card guys’. Yeah, okay, got it. The opening card guy in the UFC makes a lot more than the boxer, but when you get to the top of the levels, versus boxing it’s a huge disparity. I don’t like it and I wasn’t going to stand for it.”
Jorge Masvidal is set to return to the Octagon in the UFC 261 Main Event when he has a rematch with Kamaru Usman. Given that there are two more title fights on the card, it is likely that this fight will be big business for pay-per-view sales.