Reactions to UFC’s groundbreaking deal with Paramount have generated a slew of reactions.
On Monday, news broke that Paramount had plunked down a whopping $7.7 billion to become the exclusive streaming home of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s events starting in 2026 — including premium numbered events which will be available as part of the monthly subscription service.
That bit of news alone was enough for fight fans to rejoice.
However, there has been a lot of talk about how eliminating the antiquated pay-per-view model will impact fighter pay. Traditionally, UFC championship and top stars receive PPV points as part of their contract. Essentially, it allows fighters to earn a bonus based on the buyrate of a particular PPV event. The more people who buy it, the more money the athlete takes home.
With PPV essentially eliminated as of 2026, does that mean fighters will lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in the process? While one UFC legend suggests that could be the case, three-time UFC title challenger Chael Sonnen disagrees.
“The idea that fighters would be paid less? Fighters have never been paid less,” Sonnen said via his YouTube channel. “And that includes years the company made less. If your conclusion is that fighters will make less now — while you’re being given the gift of no longer paying for pay-per-views — then I feel you have greatly missed the point.
“There’s never a time in history, including the years the UFC was losing money, where year-over-year fighter pay didn’t go up. That wasn’t negotiated, by the way. That was done by the office that said, ‘Hey, allocate and get more money to these guys.’ The idea that you know what an MMA fighter makes is false. It’s simply false.”
Dana White addresses fighter pay concerns following Paramount deal … Sort of
Following Tuesday’s new episode of Dana White’s Contender Series, the UFC CEO briefly addressed some of the concerns surrounding fighter pay, revealing that bonuses are “obviously” going up.
“Listen, I’m not going to have any comments on that because we’ve still got to get together and figure this stuff out,” White told reporters at the Contender Series scrum on Tuesday. “It’s August, we have until January to figure that stuff out. But the low-hanging fruit that’s easy to answer? Bonuses are obviously going up. So that will be big. Forget about the tide rising with all the other fighters, just the number that the bonuses bring to a fighter is millions of dollars.”
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