Fighter pay is a hot topic for people when they look at the UFC. The promotion has been on the receiving end of a lot of criticism from various athletes and pundits. Athletes like Jake Paul and others have been very vocal about it and even called out Dana White. Amongst all this, UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya signed a new deal, and his manager had a say on the fighter pay issue.

Before his title defense at UFC 271, ‘The Last Stylebender’ inked a lucrative new UFC deal and became one of the highest-paid athletes in MMA history. However, the exact terms and his salary weren’t revealed. This has been a huge topic of debate in MMA in general.

Many believe that they should disclose the salary as it will bring focus on an increase in fighter pay. But there are people who believe otherwise.

Adesanya’s manager, Tim Simpson, was recently on The MMA Hour. While talking about this issue, he said, “If sports-wide, every UFC salary was disclosed, it’s gonna create more unity, more leverage for the fighter. And that’s all I care about, its leverage of the fighter.”

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“For the good of the whole sport, if the purses were disclosed, not publicly even, just to like an internal database. It would benefit all fighters.”

Adesanya, after his title defense, during the media scrum, talked about his new deal. ‘The Last Stylebender’ said that he believes his new contract will be the start of something new and fighters all across the board will benefit from it.

Israel Adesanya dismisses the Khamzat Chimaev challenge – for now

After Israel Adesanya successfully defended his title against Robert Whittaker at UFC 271, Chimaev called him out. The Swede said that he would make light work of the champion. Since then he has had a back-and-forth with Henry Cejudo as well, saying that ‘The Last Stylebender’ isn’t ready for him.

Adesanya noted his call-outs but in a recent interview dismissed it. He said, “He’s not really relevant right now. I don’t have to take him seriously, till I have to take him seriously. Like his last fight, I was impressed. I was like, yo, that guy is good. But, there’s levels. So we’ll see how he does with Gilbert.”

“He’s only fought like one middleweight fight that I’ve seen and I’m just like who has he fought? He can beat a lot of middleweights, I’ll tell you that much. A lot of top-level middleweights, but I don’t have to take him seriously, till I have to take him seriously.”

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Grappling bothers Adesanya a little, and many believe Chimaev can be that guy to put a stop to him. However, just as the UFC middleweight champion said, he still has ways to go. But one-day fans might witness them going head-to-head.