Justin Gaethje didn’t raise his voice; he just told the truth as he saw it. And somehow, that honesty is what’s now causing the loudest noise after boss Dana White’s response to his comments about his pay issues in the UFC’s new era!

As the promotion transitions into a $7.7 billion Paramount deal, fans were told the change would benefit fighters. But when one of the promotion’s most reliable action stars publicly said he hasn’t seen a single extra dollar, it cracked the surface of that promise. What followed only made things murkier.

Gaethje’s comments came during UFC 324 media day, where the former interim lightweight champion laid out his frustration plainly. “Oh man, to have 14 bonuses and not equal up to a million dollars, it’s not right. It’s not right. It should be a lot more than that,” he said.

Enter Dana White. Appearing on The Pat McAfee Show, White was asked about Gaethje’s remarks and the broader concern around fighter pay in a no–pay-per-view model. White responded by leaning on process and analytics.

He explained that the UFC brought in “really smart kids” who calculated payouts to mirror what fighters would have earned under the old PPV system, saying they could get “within single digits” of that number.

Then came the pivot. “And Gaethje, without getting into all that stuff, Gaethje was offered more money and Gaethje never responded,” White said.

That one sentence changed the entire conversation. Because now, this isn’t just about whether fighters are getting paid more. It’s about whether an offer was actually made and, if so, why it went unanswered. At the time of writing, Gaethje hasn’t responded publicly to Dana White’s claim. Neither has his manager, Ali Abdelaziz. And that silence is exactly what sparked doubt.

Dana White’s response to Justin Gaethje questioned by Ariel Helwani

Ariel Helwani put words to what many were already thinking. In a post on X, he praised Gaethje for speaking up, calling him “one of the greatest fighters in UFC history” and noting that he’s nearing the end of his career while looking around and realizing “I don’t have much to show for it.”

Then the veteran journalist asked the uncomfortable questions. “Was Gaethje offered a contract, and he didn’t respond? If that is true, why not respond?” he wrote.

And if ‘The Highlight’ never received anything? “Then we have to go to Ali Abdelaziz.” Helwani didn’t accuse anyone directly, but his conclusion was pointed: “Someone is clearly lying here.”

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That’s the problem. White’s response didn’t close the loop. It opened another one. This also clashes with earlier assurances from the UFC boss himself. Back in 2025, White said performance bonuses would “obviously be going up” under the Paramount deal, adding that the increase alone could bring fighters “millions of dollars” over time.

But Gaethje’s experience suggests that it hasn’t reached everyone, at least not yet. So where does that leave things?

On one side, you have a fighter who’s delivered violence on demand for years, headlined cards, and earned bonuses at a historic rate, saying the new era hasn’t changed his bottom line. On the other hand, you have the promoter saying an offer was made, but went unanswered. Both can’t be true without context. And right now, that context is missing.

If this is what getting paid more looks like under a $7.7 billion deal, fighters and fans alike are going to keep asking the same thing: If not fighters like Justin Gaethje, then who, exactly, is this new system working for?