Michael ‘Venom’ Page hasn’t been shy about voicing his disapproval of certain aspects of how the UFC does business, and his latest target is the lack of significant fighter pay increases in the wake of the promotion’s $7.7 billion broadcast deal with Paramount+.
The news at the start of the year that the structure for fighter bonuses was undergoing an overhaul that would see the traditional ‘Fight Of The Night’ and ‘Performance Of The Night’ awards doubling in value to $100,000 each, as well as every win by strikes or submission being awarded a guaranteed $25,000 bonus too.
However, Page is unhappy that this appears to be the extent of the pay increases, despite the UFC now making vastly more money than they ever have in the past.
And the recent news that boxing star Conor Benn has signed a one-fight deal with Zuffa Boxing for $15 million has only rubbed more salt in the wounds.
“It’s not something that I’m happy about,” Page told Yahoo! Sports. “What I would say is when the announcement of the Paramount, big-money partnership [with the UFC] came, people were asking me, ‘Are you excited about this?’ And my answer was, ‘Well, what does that mean for the fighters? Until we understand how that’s going to translate to the fighters, there’s nothing to really be excited about.’
“Then I heard about the, if you want to call it an increase, in bonus structure. This is why I wasn’t bothered to be excited initially. Because for me, that doesn’t do enough comparatively to the amount of money that they’ve just brought in for themselves. … Then to see it and how quickly [Dana White] values people — or how highly he values people away from the sport that kind of built his reputation — it’s just upsetting, to be fair. It’s disappointing more than anything.”
‘Venom’ goes on to say that there’s clearly something wrong with the UFC’s pay structure when fighters struggle to make a living even when they are competing on the sport’s biggest stage.
“I’ve been saying this for a long time, I feel like we have deserved more,” Page said. “I hate hearing stories of fighters getting to what is the pinnacle of your career, in terms of the UFC, and still being broke. That just shouldn’t exist. Unless you’re just completely terrible with money, it just shouldn’t exist that you’re struggling from fight to fight, and it just shouldn’t be a thing. … The only thing I can say is it’s disappointing more than anything.”
