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UFC Middleweight Champion Sean Strickland recently appeared on Extra Rounds with TJ DeSantis and Don Frye.
The subject of fighter pay came up during the trios discussion, which led to this long statement from Strickland, who was talking about advice he recently gave someone who wanted to get into professional fighting (transcript via Steven Marrocco of MMA Fighting):
“Hey, you want to be a UFC fighter. $500 bucks. ... But you know, it’s not that much different now, man. It’s funny, this guy came up to me, and he said, ‘Hey, you know, my son’s 17, he trains, he wants to be a fighter. Do you have any advice?’
“I said, ‘Don’t do it.’ He goes, ‘What do you mean?’ And I’m like, ‘Well, let me explain to you, sir.’ Let me explain if you guys have kids at home who want to be a fighter. Let me explain to you the joy of being an MMA fighter.
“I was like, ‘You see the Contender [Series fighters], what do you think they make?’ And he goes, ‘I don’t know.’ I go, ‘They make five and five. If they lose, they make five.’ And he goes, ‘Damn.’ I go, ‘If you lose, guess what, you’re not going to UFC.’ So this entire life you could have spent building a life, doing any other aspect in life, you chose to train fighting.
“So let’s just say you make it now you make it to the UFC. Well, hey, guess what, what do you think they sign the average guy on? ... Ten and 10 for this man. So you make it to UFC, you get signed, 10 and 10, and now you fight for 10 and 10, and you’ve spent your entire life working for this one goal. You get the blue check mark, you get the UFC in your logo, you get all the people, you get all of it now. So you go 2-2 and maybe they’re boring fights, and the UFC cuts you, and now guess what? You have made a total of ... $60,000 your entire career, and you have no other option, because you can’t be a part-time fighter. You’ve got to be full time.
“So now you’re a 24-year-old man looking yourself in the mirror saying, ‘I spent my entire life doing this one thing and I’ve made $24,000, or $60,000. What do I do now? You go teach cardio kickboxing.
“And that’s, like, the damn shame of like most industry. It’s like you get kind of Weinstein-d. They put this big old f****** UFC logo — and again, I love UFC, guys. I make more money in the UFC than f******, I mean, I am not a poor man, you guys. I would be in the rich category, which still f****** shocks me every time I think about it. But they put this big old f****** logo and you sell your f****** soul for it. You sell your f****** soul for it, man.”
The live broadcast ended right there on UFC Fight Pass, but that didn’t stope Strickland from continuing on his thoughts on fighter pay:
“How many people in this sport end up not being poor after they’re done? And this isn’t NFL poor ... they’re not gonna hear this s***. They’re not going to air this s***, but I’m just telling you how this f****** goes.
“We’re not talking about, ‘Hey, I was in the NFL, I got paid millions of dollars, and I went and gambled on drugs and hookers.’ That’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking on, I made $60,000. Now, what’s next? So when we talk about how much Don Fry made and goddamn, it’s shocking and how much most guys make.
“My advice to anybody, enjoy....”
Strickland would post his entire statement on Instagram, including a caption that hinted on the UFC’s alleged “censorship” during the live broadcast:
