“They used some kind of dirty game there… It wasn’t much at all, [a] few pennies,” Francis Ngannou had said when he found himself at odds with Dana White and the UFC, with unjustly tilted contract negotiations. While Ngannou and White themselves share a colorful history, it looks like these comments weren’t purely out of spite.

Time and again, fighters have spoken up about the dire situation of their contracts, with zero independence and equally devastating digits in their bank accounts. In fact, Arman Tsarukyan himself has found streaming to be more lucrative than the UFC. However, Sean O’Malley appears as the black sheep with his contrarian views.

“People complain, ‘I’m only getting paid 10 and 10.’ —You have to build your name up, bring value to the promotion. If you don’t want to make $50,000 a fight, go work at Target. No one’s forcing you to fight,” O’Malley went against the grain in a take that might not be everyone’s favorite, but, undeniably, has some truth to it.

O’Malley’s argument is simple: UFC pays fighters based on the value they bring. If there’s a $10K to show/ $10K to win contract, it’s worth noting where the fighter stands in their career. By contrast, hype-driven fighters who can fill up an arena just with their presence are the ones UFC prioritizes, from a purely logical business viewpoint.

As independent contractors, O’Malley finds it to be the fighter’s responsibility to be an interesting story to sell, with a marketable personality and brand. Colored hair and a quirky in-cage persona are ‘Suga’s way of turning the controls back towards himself. Notably, 2x UFC Champion Islam Makhachev reflects a similar sentiment.

However, what looks like a cold assessment of the UFC falls apart in unimaginably simple ways. First and foremost, building a name is far more layered than some trash talk here and there, with linguistic barriers and stylistic differences freezing any progress. Moreover, given the amount of sweat and blood the fighters sacrifice to reach such a global stage, the pay not only falls short on honoring them, but also barely helps make ends meet.

“So I did all the math, I did all that stuff and I was like what the f*ck? That’s all I made?… I was like godd*mn, I’m f*cking gutted,” Demetrious Johnson quipped after realizing how underpaid he was in the UFC despite his star power. That isn’t a pretty picture for a multi-billion dollar enterprise, and the fans were quick to unpack O’Malley’s biased take with vigor and criticism.

Fans tear Sean O’Malley apart as they lift the curtains on the true state of UFC fighter pay

Drawing direct comparisons to other sports, one user wrote, “Yes and no. I agree with the point but if you are talking value, UFC fighters are getting robbed. Major boxers like Canelo can make $100 million for one fight a year. I think Crawford made $66 million to beat him. At best, Jon Jones made like $8 million his last fight.”

Another fan tossed digs at the capitalistic nature of the promotion: “Great point, but for how big UFC is now they can definitely afford at the very least a pay bump.”

Quick to defend that, one user raised issues about how the fragile system holds against top names, commenting, “Agree for young fighters (and i think he can be a lil bit more generous) but dana screwed up on this one. You dont give 10 +10 to a Cédric doumbe or a Alex perreira.”

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However, one fan threw direct shade at O’Malley, writing, “Of course he well say that he’s Dana’s b-tch.” In another critique, one user wrote, “Mind you he’s built his name up somewhat and people still don’t like him or care to watch him lmfao😭.”

According to some others, Sean O’Malley is far too privileged to understand the situation of non-english speaking fighters, suggesting MMA teams should be held responsible here. They wrote, “Besides, he really acts like it is a level playing field, as if a guy who cannot speak English has the same opportunities as him.”

Another user quipped how it is impossible for every fighter on the roster to command similar attention, commenting, “Heels and journey men are necessary to build stars. Is it fair that they are stuck earning less than any other pro athlete at their level?”

As the fans noted, Sean O’Malley’s opinion, while holding some truth to it, lacks in moral grounding, making it an honest yet harmful assessment for MMA fighters. Do you think O’Malley deserved the backlash? Or was it just another internet whiplash? Comment below.