Daniel Cormier, unlike several other big names, doesn’t have a problem with UFC contracts. He has even been labeled as a corporate champ. However, the road to such prosperity hasn’t been easy for the former double champ. Even he has gone through tough negotiations to get the money that he is worth.

Fighters such as Jon Jones and Jorge Masvidal have openly criticized the UFC for the amount they are getting paid. Despite being unhappy with the pay that they are receiving, they can’t leave the organization as they are under contract. Therefore, they can do nothing else other than sitting around and wait for the correct pay.

Cormier was, however, smart enough to ask for a bump in pay when his contract was about to expire. In his early MMA days, DC had signed an eight-fight deal with Strikeforce. The organization was later absorbed into the UFC. Consequently, Cormier moved to his new home. His last fight of the contract was his Light Heavyweight debut against Rashad Evans.

Before the fight, he went to the UFC owners to negotiate his new contract.

“I negotiated with the UFC for the first time when I left Strikeforce, I wanted more money,” Daniel Cormier said on the DC and Helwani podcast. “I was there with Lorenzo Fertitta and Dana White. Since I was on my Strikeforce contract so I was making decent money. I thought I was making sixty and sixty or something. I think it was pretty good back in the day. In Strikeforce, I was making fifteen grand. So sixty and sixty was crazy for me.”

The UFC didn’t give Cormier the amount he originally asked for

When Cormier went in to negotiate, he used a basic rule of a bargain by quoting a high initial price. DC asked the UFC for a hundred and a hundred for his next contract. However, he would have been okay with something like eighty and eighty. His demand was met with serious frowns from the top UFC brass. Regardless, Cormier kept his calm.

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“I was in the office,” Cormier continued. “When I told them what I wanted they yelled. Dana yelled and he went crazy. He was mad. He was like we don’t know what you’re gonna be. We can’t pay a guy a hundred and a hundred. I was like I’ll just fight Rashad and then I’ll be out of contract and I’ll see what happens. I was like okay I’m gonna leave.”

Dana White wasn’t physically present during the meeting. He was on a call. Lorenzo Fertitta, the former part-owner of the UFC, was present in person. Cormier knew his worth and hence wasn’t willing to settle for any less. His strategy of hard negotiation played out well eventually. He didn’t manage to get the initially quoted amount. Regardless, he was happy with what he received.

“So I left. Lorenzo at the door was like we’ll call you. Dana was going crazy. By the time I was at the airport Lorenzo called me and we came up with a number that was fair to me. That’s what I made. I was okay. But even if we didn’t agree I was like we’re gonna fight it out and we’ll see. And then they thought about it and came up with a number. I didn’t get a hundred and a hundred. I got something that I was okay with. It was like eighty and eighty,” Cormier concluded.

Daniel Cormier gives the secret for a successful contract negotiation

Cormier’s contract negotiation presents a stark difference to the current scenario. Even his most contentious negotiation happened behind closed doors. Unlike Masvidal and Jones, who have been making their case on Twitter, DC took the silent but effective way out. Hence, no one other than those involved first-hand got to know anything about it.

Secondly, DC waited for his contract to finish. He knew that while he was under contract, the UFC could always overpower him. Hence, he waited for the power to shift in his direction. Cris Cyborg, who recently went to Bellator, also said that waiting till the end of her contract was the best thing she had done in terms of negotiating.

However, it can’t be denied that there are a lot of variables in the case of Masvidal and Jones that are different from DC. Therefore, one can’t expect them to follow the same path. At the same time, seeing how smooth DC’s professional life has been in terms of pay and contract surely makes it a good example.