What happens if 80% of UFC fighters suddenly stop competing for the promotion? It’s an extreme scenario, but with the organization facing criticism over fighter pay, it’s not impossible to imagine a situation where many no longer want to compete under Dana White’s banner for $12K to show and win. For most leagues, losing the majority of their roster would be catastrophic. However, Daniel Cormier believes the UFC might not even care.  

Talking about fighters’ purses in the UFC, retired MMA fighter Ben Askren pointed out that fighters don’t actually have much leverage in Dana White’s promotion when it comes to pay-related demands. Why? Because ‘Funky’ believes the UFC could cut 80% of its roster, much like the Marvel character Thanos. Well, Daniel Cormier was in agreement with the former UFC fighter’s statement and argued that the company mainly needs its biggest stars while the rest are replaceable. 

“80%? You think there are 20% of fighters in the UFC that are irreplaceable,” Cormier said during the Funky and the Champ podcast. “There’s less than that. I believe when you talk about who’s irreplaceable, like who do you have to have. Dude, lemme tell you how you know that—I think you have to have Ilia Topuria. I think you have to have Islam Makhachev. I think you have to have Alex Pereira.  

“I think that you have to have certain guys. But here’s the deal. Like Alex Pereira is not going, ‘I’m not giving up what I got signing an 8 fight deal to make sure that the guy on the bottom is okay’. Like it is a fraud argument cause the top guys are making big money,” he added.

When it comes to the top value bringers, the UFC definitely has current stars like Ilia Topuria, Alex Pereira, Islam Makhachev, and the rest of the champions. You also have former champs like Sean O’Malley and up-and-coming stars like Kevin Vallejos, whom the UFC would like to keep, even if it means spending a little more. But other than those few selected athletes, Daniel Cormier is right to point out that the UFC might replace them with other prospects.

Forget replacing fighters with exciting new talent; the UFC once replaced its marquee champion because he wasn’t bringing enough value. That was former flyweight champion, Demetrious Johnson. For those unaware, ‘Mighty Mouse’ had multiple championship fights from 2011 to 2017. Still, even after competing so frequently, Dana White eventually traded him for Ben Askren in a deal with ONE Championship. The reason? The UFC didn’t see enough value in ‘DJ’ to draw a larger audience at that time, which led to the trade.   

Also recently, the UFC axed five fighters in a roster purge and also removed ranked heavyweight Jailton Almeida from the roster. On the other hand, Alex Pereira has signed an eight-fight deal with the UFC at 38 years old, which is likely to earn him millions of dollars, and it seems ‘Poatan’ won’t mind spending a few more years with the promotion.

With that example, we can understand that it’s not just the 80% of non-champions, even titleholders aren’t completely safe in the UFC if they don’t bring value. And interestingly, Daniel Cormier’s stance on fighter pay has some backing from Sean O’Malley, who also believes that fighters need to bring something to the table to be taken care of by the promotion. 

Now, amid the fighter pay debate, which is definitely bringing some contrasting views, another prominent personality has decided to share his take as well.  

Joe Rogan shows support for fighters getting more pay in the UFC  

Well, UFC fighter pay has always been a heated discussion among fans and pundits. But nobody can deny that Ronda Rousey’s recent comments about the UFC underpaying its fighters have worked like kerosene on an already fired-up topic. Following her remarks that the UFC can’t pay fighters a living wage, a lot of support came her way, and now Joe Rogan has also sided with ‘Rowdy’.

“She had this big, long speech about the UFC for $7 billion, and these fighters aren’t making enough money – look, she made some good points,” Rogan said on JRE episode with Dustin Poirier. “The most important thing is she gets the conversation out there, and it puts pressure on the UFC to pay people more.

 If Netflix can become successful in MMA, if they can put cards together and pull fighters away – like right now they’re doing a one-off – it’s crazy money, but if anybody’s got that kind of money, it’s Netflix. They throw around a lot of ridiculous money. They make so much money, so they can kind of do that,” he added.

Well, Jake Paul is already hosting an MMA card on Netflix with Ronda Rousey in the headliner, which fans are saying has better firepower than some UFC events. So, if the market gets more competition, it’s expected that the UFC would also raise fighter pay.

That said, what do you think is the solution for fighters to increase their pay? Let us know in the comments section below.