Daniel Cormier has claimed that in the wake of the UFC’s new Paramount+ broadcasting deal, some stars are already signing new deals that are more lucrative than their old ones, despite no longer having the option to get a cut of pay-per-view sales.

When the UFC’s new broadcasting deal begins in January, it will also mark the end of the pay-per-view era for the promotion in the United States, with all the shows now being available for the cost of a monthly Paramount+ subscription.

That’s been seen as a big win for UFC fans who were previously shelling out large sums of money each month for PPV’s, but it has also led to concerns that major UFC stars and champions who typically get a small share of the revenue from those numbered events would now be left out-of-pocket.

However, DC states in a new interview that he’s already hearing that some fighters have been able to negotiate better contracts that make up for the lack of PPV money.

“I know guys now who are making more money now than they did even with PPV,” Cormier said during a Christmas Eve interview at his home for Josh Thomson’s ‘Weighing In’ podcast. “I know guys now who said ‘hey can I restructure with the idea that PPV is gone’ and the UFC is like ‘yes’ and now it’s like guaranteed money.”

Cormier went on to explain that this was partly down to the fact that the PPV business isn’t what it once was.

“Pay-per-view’s maybe just weren’t selling as much as they used to,” Cormier said. “Whenever we were fighting and I was fighting Jon Jones and ‘Rumble’ Johnson, and having Nate Diaz on my card, I was making a boat-load of money on pay-per-view. That’s not the reality of the world today.”

DC went on to reveal that the biggest ever PPV event he featured on was UFC 200 in 2016, which drew 1.4 million buys thanks to Brock Lesnar being on the bill, while Cormier’s rematch with Jon Jones at UFC 217 in 2017 did right around 1 million buys.

Those kind of numbers were game-changers for the stars who were lucky enough to have PPV points in their contracts, but in recent years sales had dwindled, with Cormier estimating that even big events now only manage around 500,000-600,000 buys, with less popular ones doing much less.

So now it seems that restructured deals that give improved guaranteed income without having to worry about PPV numbers is now more desirable.

However, it still remains to be seen how the new $7.7 billion paramount deal affects the earnings of the UFC’s roster as a whole rather than just the top stars.

Watch Cormier’s full interview with Thomson below.