For a while now, one of the most common criticisms levelled at the UFC has been the amount of money paid to its athletes. Following the highly publicised contract disagreement between the UFC and its heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, this contentious topic has gotten even hotter.
Some fighters are attempting to improve athlete pay by speaking out and raising awareness and through far more specific legislative actions such as the Ali Act and the ongoing antitrust litigation. On the other hand, a few individuals are quick to defend the UFC. This includes UFC flyweight Matt Schnell, who strongly supported MMA’s multi-billion dollar world leader before his UFC 271 match.
“It’s woefully dishonest that Francis Ngannou is running around acting like he only made six hundred thousand dollars,” Schell told MMA Island . “I know for a fact he got pay-per-view points, he got paid for Reebok, got paid for this, paid for that. He probably made — I’m not gonna say it, but way more than $600,000.”
Schnell then resurrected an old argument and justification, claiming that the low salary is due to the UFC’s youth compared to other mainstream sports organisations.
“To compare the UFC to NFL is also preposterous. On a slow Sunday, the NFL grosses one billion dollars. They had 60 million people tune in… What’s a good UFC pay-per-view? 500K, a million we’re killing it,” he said. “Don’t compare the UFC to the big three yet. They’re toddlers. It’s coming along.”
Schnell debuted in the UFC in 2016 with a $10,000 base payment, which is the same as the minimum compensation for Contender Series rookies today. Other directly signed fighters now receive a minimum of $2000 more than they did six years ago.
Interestingly, Schnell claimed that 90 percent of the UFC’s roster is “losing money,” while saying that fighters don’t deserve a significant raise in basic wage. He also slammed the idea of athletes banding together and bargaining collectively.
“90% of the UFC’s roster, they are losing money on. No doubt about it.” – Matt Schnell
“Okay, Poirier, Diaz, these guys that are established, that move the needle, these guys deserve the money. But are you going to tell me that a debutant — for instance, Randy Costa came into the UFC with four fights. You’re telling me he deserves $50,000 with four fights under his belt?” he argued.
“90% of the UFC’s roster, they are losing money on. No doubt about it. I want to make money, everybody wants to make money. I’ll go out there and earn it,” he said. “I don’t want a fighters union. I appreciate the opportunity to negotiate for myself. I’ll sit down at the table and negotiate for myself. I don’t want somebody else negotiating for everybody else’s bullshit.
“I’m all for people making more money, but I’m also a guy who believes in merit. You gain merit by getting in here and winning the fights. If you don’t win the fights, you get cut. If you do win the fights, make your way up, fight often, do what you’re supposed to do, you make money.”
Schnell went on to say that the UFC’s salary is enough because other, much smaller MMA organisations pay significantly less.
“I’ve fought outside this promotion. I’ve been on a seven fight win streak making pennies. Let’s talk about that. Let’s talk about what everybody else is paying. Get out of here with this nonsense!” Schnell exclaimed. “All these dudes come up to me and talk to me like I’m not well paid. I negotiated my own contract. I’m happy with what I’m getting paid. If I go out and win the fights, my next negotiation, I’ll make more. That’s how it works, and that’s how it should work!”
The 32-year-old then repeated a same argument regularly used by Dana White, before telling people who push for better fighter pay to “shut your f—king mouth.”
“How about start a promotion and pay them better?” he said.
“All these people b—ching about fighter pay, and they’re stealing every single fight. Shut your f—king mouth, buy the pay-per-view! You want to see us get paid more, buy the pay-per-views ya goofs!
“They’re typing up trying to virtue signal ‘yeah fighters deserve more pay’ shut your f—king mouth! Why don’t you tip me then,” he said. “You think I deserve more pay? I’ll shoot you my Venmo! I’ll shoot you my PayPal!”
