Home

UFC

“The UFC Wants You to Do All This Stuff for Free…”: Two-Time UFC Champion Blows the Gaff on Dana White’s Unfair Treatment Towards His Fighters

Published 07/02/2023, 5:50 AM EDT

Follow Us

via Getty

UFC legend Tim Sylvia has not forgotten the circumstances of his fallout with the UFC. The two-time UFC heavyweight champion recently laid out how he felt mistreated by the promotion and exposed some of their practices concerning fighter pay. After his fallout with the promotion, Sylvia abruptly left in 2008. He spent the remainder of his career in competing in other promotions until calling it quits in 2015. Now, the 47-year-old has taken a look back at his UFC exit and recollected the problems he had with Dana White‘s company.

Tim Sylvia has fought several heavyweight legends like Frank Mir, Randy Couture, Andrei Arlovski, and Fedor Emelianenko. However, the power puncher did not have the best of times at the UFC. Fighter pay issues have always been at the centerfold of UFC controversies and Sylvia had faced his fair share of it. He recently opened up about the same during an interview with Submission Radio.

Tim Sylvia blasts the UFC for poor treatment

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

Two-time UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia did not feel the promotion appreciated him enough financially. The 47-year-old told Submission Radio that the UFC had them do public appearances for trinkets. Meanwhile, other public events would compensate them much better.

When asked about his fallout with the UFC, Sylvia said, “I think a lot of it, you know, it’s fighter pay and how you treat it and stuff like that. They expect all these appearances and do it for two or three hundred dollars.”

Trending

Get instantly notified of the hottest UFC stories via Google! Click on Follow Us and Tap the Blue Star.

Follow Us

He continued, “When you’re doing outside appearances and you’re getting paid five thousand dollars to go to some local fights in Tennessee and they fly you first class and put you up and stuff like that. The UFC wants you to do all this stuff for free for them.”

He further added, “And they give you all your per diem for 250 bucks. It’s like, man, it’s like ‘this isn’t cutting it guys. You know I can make more money doing my appearance on my own and doing stuff for you.'”

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

“The Maine-iac” later added that the promotion, bringing in Brock Lesnar on a mammoth contract while veterans like himself were severely underpaid in comparison was the last straw for him. The promotion denied his request for a fight against Lesnar but obliged when he asked to be released from his contract.

Read More: “Someone Is Definitely Getting Put to Sleep”- Fans Thrilled as Dana White’s Power Slap League Sees ‘Boxing People’s Champ’ Takes On Retired US Marine

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

What do you make of Sylvia’s comments? Do you think the UFC should have treated him better? Let us know your views and opinions in the comments below.

Watch This Story: Watch: Dana White’s $6M worth Las Vegas mansion

SHARE THIS ARTICLE :

Written by:

Yeswanth Praveen

928Articles

One take at a time

Yeswanth Praveen is a UFC writer at EssentiallySports, having written over 500 articles on the sport. With a Master’s degree in English Literature, Yeswanth expertly combines his writing and storytelling skills with his passion for MMA. He was initially drawn to the sport after the intense rivalry between Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov captured his attention.
Show More>

Edited by:

Shibu Immanuel