UFC fighter pay: Dana White explicitly lashes out at boxing salaries

Dana White’s views on fighter pay are well known.

The UFC president has repeatedly come under fire in recent years, with fighters like Jorge Masvidal and Francis Ngannou complaining about the sport’s existing structure.

Back in January, YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul got into a spat with White after telling him to increase fighter pay minimums, agree to a 50 percent revenue split with athletes and implement a long-term healthcare plan for fighters.

But White won’t budge, as his recent interview with The Pivot Podcast revealed.

Addressing the subject of fighter pay, he said: “There’s always gonna be head butting. Do you make enough money? Do you? I want to meet that guy that goes, ‘Oh, I’m good. I make plenty of money. I don’t need another dime.’ You’re never going to meet that guy. It’s never going to happen. Everybody wants more money.”

White then turned his attention to boxing, saying: “One of the big problems with boxing too, is that all those f****** guys are overpaid, and every time they put on a fight, it’s a going-out-of-business sale. We’re just trying to get as much f****** money as we can from you guys, and then we’re out of here. We’ll see you in three years.

{Scroll to 36:50 in the below video to see Dana White discuss pay}

“You can’t build a league like that,” he continued. “You can’t build a sport. You can’t have 750 fighters under contract, making money, feeding their families every year, with that kind of mentality. It doesn’t work. You have to run a business.”

White then provided further insight into the rationale behind his philosophy.

“We built a business model where, if you’re the champion, you share in the pay-per-view revenue,” he said. “If you’re the guy headlining the card, or there’s been some