UFC fighters spend their careers colliding inside the cage. But even if they spend blood, sweat, and tears in the Octagon, Dana White does not award them long-term insurance benefits despite the promotion’s multi-billion dollar valuation. It’s a reality of the sport, and one former heavyweight believes he knows the two cold, hard business reasons why Dana White keeps it that way.

According to ex-heavyweight Brendan Schaub, the UFC CEO faces two major issues in terms of providing fighters’ health insurance. Number one, most of the fighters have pre-existing issues before entering the promotion. And secondly, it would get too expensive for the promotion to churn out a huge chunk of its revenue, potentially billions of dollars, in terms of fighters’ health benefits.

“That’s a good question because they are so anti-giving guys benefits,” ‘Big Brown’ said in his YouTube video. “I wonder if it’s just a train wreck or is it so hard to get insurance. Cause remember, Dana gets these guys where the damage is already done. So let’s say I have some horrible CTE from football. From six to basically twenty-three I played tackle football, and I decided to fight in the UFC. So is Dana responsible for the injuries I conducted during my football career? That falls on his shoulders?

And there you’re fully insuring the benefits to a bunch of professional mixed martial artists. I don’t know. I would assume that has some to do with it. Obviously, it would be a good look for the UFC to attract better athletes if they did provide benefits. But the pros and cons, so it might be so many cons where UFC is like, buddy, this is 6 billion dollars insurance,” he added.

For context, it’s not that UFC doesn’t have any medical assistance for the fighters. In fact, Dana White and Co. started providing fighters some level of insurance in 2011 after their deal with Fox. However, it’s not like your typical insurance. There are some definite financial and professional limitations. For starters, the UFC bears medical expenses if a fighter suffers an injury during in-cage action. But when it comes to training-related injuries, the company unfortunately doesn’t provide much support.

News served to you like never before!

Prefer us on Google, To get latest news on feed

Prefer Us on Google

Moreover, the promotion also seems to have a particular limit for covering injuries. Depending on the severity, the UFC would assist fighters in treating their wounds or major injuries if they only happened inside the cage. With that condition in place, there also seems to be substance behind Schaub’s comments.

At UFC Houston, Josiah Harrell got to make his debut on short notice as a traumatic brain injury survivor. Because of moyamoya disease, the fighter missed his UFC debut last time, and he’s not even the first fighter to face such a situation. Now imagine the promotion actually bearing those costs for a significant part of their roster, who may already have traumatic injuries. It would be a financial hassle to pull that off.

Still, even with that fact intact, there have been two fighters in particular who have been very vocal about giving health insurance to fighters.

Justin Gaethje and Tony Ferguson once advocated for UFC health insurance

Current interim lightweight champion Justin Gaethje and former 155-pounder Tony Ferguson have gone through some barn burners inside the Octagon, both against other opponents and each other. Each of them has spent years in the UFC, enduring significant brain trauma after landing and absorbing countless shots. So, despite being previously contenders in the same division, the two brawlers found themselves sharing the same stance on fighters’ health insurance.

“I’d say, let’s get some insurance for these fighters,” Ferguson said during the UFC 274 press conference. “Let’s raise the tier up. You know what I mean, when they did the Reebok deal, they had tiers based on how many fights you had inside the Octagon. I say we do the same thing, man. We all have families, we all have to support our systems. Let’s do that. I don’t know, Dana’s not here but, insurance,” ‘El Cucuy’ added, referring to Dana White.

“I want bigger bonuses, bigger bonuses,” Gaethje responded, who was also present at the UFC 274 presser. “And health insurance, but bigger bonuses.”

After ‘The Highlight’ voiced his support, Tony Ferguson also doubled down on his comments, while the crowd also rallied behind them, showing their support for the cause. However, that moment came in 2022. But has the promotion shown any major improvement since then? Not quite, as there have been no major public reports regarding athletes receiving long-term insurance.

That said, with the UFC now aligned with Paramount+ through broadcast partnerships, could updated benefits for fighters finally become part of the conversation? Let us know your thoughts.