Henry Cejudo agrees the UFC should compensate its fighters better. He wants to know what fighters are actually going to do about it.
UFC athlete pay has been a topic of discussion for years, but it’s flared up again in recent months with fighters like Jon Jones, Conor McGregor, and Sean O’Malley questioning the promotion’s business practices, and former UFC star Ronda Rousey publicly criticizing the company for underpaying fighters and damaging the industry.
On his Pound 4 Pound podcast with Kamaru Usman, Cejudu painted a clear picture of what he thinks needs to be done for the situation to change.
“There’s a 51-49 pay [split] in basketball, football, MLB, and these guys are making—If these dudes truly knew what they are making and what the UFC could potentially pay them, they’d think a little bit different,” Cejudo said. “The other thing that I will say is managers. Could and would managers work together to formulate something to where they’re able to see eye to eye with the UFC where this doesn’t happen. Where guys are not working at Uber Eats. Pantoja, he was a former champ, when he was fighting in the UFC, he was working Uber Eats. It’s not just him, there’s a bunch of them.
“I feel like some of that stuff should change and I think everybody’s afraid and scared and doing their own thing, but it’s, like, whenever these fighters stop becoming p*ssies and these managers can actually get together is when these guys could actually start to formulate something to where, ‘Alright, you guys made a lot of money now, let’s distribute it a little bit better.’ Can we? Or is it the same model?”
There have been several key catalysts that have occurred to spur fighter pay discussion, chiefly the UFC signing a seven-year, $7.7 billion broadcasting deal with Paramount that not only eliminated the promotion’s traditional pay-per-view model—which was closely tied to the salaries of the UFC’s top stars—but offered no indication of how the fighters themselves would directly benefit from the deal.
Other hot button topics include boxing star Conor Benn reportedly signing a massive $15 million for one Zuffa Boxing appearance, former two-division UFC champion Jon Jones suggesting his release after UFC White House snub, and Colby Covington claiming the promotion has frozen him out of fights.
Top star Alex Pereira also made headlines enthusiastically announcing a new eight-fight deal with the promotion. Usman and Cejudo questioned whether Pereira is being paid what he’s worth and why he would sign such a long-term deal in the first place?
“Let’s just say this: If we got $1.1 billion and the consensus now is that it’s a payout of maybe 10 percent of that to fighters, or let’s say 15-20 percent of that to fighters,” Usman said. “Do you think we’re going to give potentially a hundred million contract to one guy when we have a roster of 600, 650 people?”
“Why such a long contract?” he added. “Why eight fights? Do you truly, really think that I’m going to be fighting eight more times? Why even offer a contract this long or sign a contract this long?”
Pereira is widely regarded as a classic company man, having signed on for several main events, including three championship fights in 2024 when the UFC appeared to be scrambling for headliners.
Cejudo hopes Pereira is satisfied with his new deal, but wonders what it means for the rest of the roster.
“Congratulations to him,” Cejudo said. “If he got that, then cool, that just means he’s sticking around a little bit longer. But what about Jones? What about Conor McGregor? If Pereira’s not saying the number, but Pereira is super happy and I’m quoting what he’s saying, ‘Whatever the UFC wants, I am here to do,’ straight from his mouth in Portugues. That’s what he said. ‘I’m very, very happy with what I got.’
“That being said, what does that do to the rest of the fighters? What does that do to the top 5, the top 10 contenders when you’re paying somebody out like that?”
“That’s the thing about this situation is it can’t be one guy,” Usman added. “You can’t because it’s almost like you’re alienating, you’re just kind of pouring more gas into the fire. When the roster is unhappy, from the top all the way down to the bottom, and they’re unhappy with, ‘Hey, we feel that we should get a little bit more. We should get a little more because it’s been announced that you’re making all of this or this is what’s coming in from just these rights,’ then I feel like it just can’t be, ‘Alright, we’re going to pay this guy.’ That guy’s happy, that guy comes out, ‘Yeah, I’m good, I signed a new deal. Do whatever you want with me.’ Yes, but that one guy can’t carry a whole damn company. You need all fighters to carry a company.
“Yes, I understand that it doesn’t matter if you’re paying me $50 million today and I get done with that, listen, yeah I want $60-$70 million tomorrow. So when it comes down to renegotiating, it’s such a tricky place to be, but I think why do we not have these particular issues with NBA or NFL or the MLB or even the NHL?”
Usman, who is bumping up against his own wall with the UFC in regards to a potential welterweight title fight with Islam Makhachev, doesn’t understand how the best of the best in MMA often see their payouts pale in comparison to lesser known roleplayers in other major sports.
“It is absurd that you can be a contender or even champion like Jon Jones, multiple times, the greatest of all time, and still potentially complain about not getting a fair share because there’s guys in the NBA that you’ve never heard of that made $100 million,” Usman said. “You’ve never heard of them. Don’t get me wrong, with respect to them, but there’s guys that did their work silently to where they were on the team, they quietly signed deals and yes, they were able to retire and make sure that their life, their family, and their whole legacy is taken care of, because that’s what’s important.
“I don’t understand why this is out now especially in a time like this, but there’s a lot of things that need to be cleared up. Conor McGregor. Jon Jones. The list goes on and on and on, but hopefully there’s something that can be done, there’s a way to work with this company because of course nobody wants to see the UFC go away. Nobody wants to see that. UFC is the NFL. If the NFL dissolved tomorrow, people wouldn’t know what to do. Nobody wants to see that. I think it’s just finding a way to get a structure and a deal together to make sure this thing keeps going and of course it trickles down to everybody.”
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