Last weekend’s Gamebred Boxing 4 pay-per-view proved to be a good payday for fighters as they earned six-figure sums after their fights. The massive payday splashed out by Jorge Masvidal‘s promotion has fans and media personnel thinking about why the UFC can’t replicate the same payday for their fighters.
Fighter pay is one of the most important issues that concern the entire UFC roster. This has been a topic of criticism for Dana White’s promotion for a while now. Moreover, combat sports outlet, ‘MMA Junkie’, recently disclosed the amount of money fighters were paid after their bouts at Gamebred Boxing 4, which has many people thinking about why UFC can’t do the same for their fighters.
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Jorge Masvidal: Gamebred Boxing 4 payday amounted to almost $3 million
Jorge Masvidal’s promotion’s 4th boxing PPV saw former world champion Roy Jones Jr. take on former UFC fighter Anthony Pettis in the main event. However, he suffered an upset after losing the fight via a majority decision. The result shocked the fans, but they mentioned how he made a good amount of money despite the loss. Moreover, the combined payout to all the fighters on the card amounted to almost $3 million as per reports.
So if Jorge Masvidal can hand out these paydays, why can't UFC blow it out of the water? 🤔
Anthony Pettis: $650,000
Roy Jones Jr: $700,000
Vitor Belfort: $400,000
Jacare Souza: $200,000
Jose Aldo: $425,000
Jeremy Stephens: $200,000 (per @MMAJunkie)— Shakiel Mahjouri (@Shak_Fu) April 6, 2023
The Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services disclosed the payout details. It is responsible for overseeing and regulating combat sports events in the state. Anthony Pettis and Roy Jones Jr. combined made $1.5 million on payday. Even the UFC Hall of Fame inductee Jose Aldo also made $425,000 against his fellow alum Jeremy Stephens. This has raised a lot of eyebrows in the MMA community regarding Dana White‘s reluctance to reduce the fighter pay issue.
Fans react to the massive payday on social media
Some fans claimed that the fighters in last weekend’s Gamebred Boxing 4 card are not rated enough by Dana White, except for Jose Aldo.
None of those fighters are worth those dollar amounts to the UFC, except for Aldo. Not a hard concept to grasp
— ape (@qpe) April 6, 2023
Other fans believe that Masvidal’s promotion holds fewer events compared to UFC in a year.
Because he’s going to hold an event like this once or twice a year not every single week
— Combat Haven (@CombatHaven) April 6, 2023
One Twitter user claimed that there were other parties involved with the promotion who pay the fighters.
LOL you think Jorge is paying them? There’s way bigger players behind the scenes running that thing
— . (@FantasyApex99) April 7, 2023
They also claim that the UFC might consider increasing fighter pay if the company quadruples its value in the coming years.
They have only tripled their value in the last 7 years, maybe if it quadrupled they'd drastically increase fighter pay
— AJD (@TheSarcasticAJ) April 6, 2023
One fan believed that it is difficult for UFC to pay the fighters more due to the number of active fighters in the promotion.
how many ppl are actively on Gamebred’s boxing roster & how many fighters are in the UFC…? It’s self explanatory.
— EA5E 🐺 (@ea5e_) April 7, 2023
One fan said:
ppv stars make more than all of that combined in one fight.
— Alexandru Ana (@Alexandru122) April 6, 2023
Most fans do not think that Jorge Masvidal paid all the fighters from his own purse.
Where is Jorge getting all that money? No way did gamebred do enough ppv to make it back!
— lee henson (@kinglee1984) April 6, 2023
Now post the other half of the card that was only making a grand
— schrib (@Mschriber88) April 6, 2023
One fan reacted to the tweet regarding the details of the payday and remarked that the payday of the other half of the fighters received just over a thousand dollars.
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It does not look like the fighter pay debate will end anytime soon. It is a recurring theme in MMA as compared to other combat sports like boxing, and even the WWE.
What are your thoughts on the massive payday splashed by Gamebred Promotions? Let us know in the comments down below.
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Written by
Edited by
Rohini Kottu