{"id":37169,"date":"2026-03-10T23:54:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T23:54:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Ronda-Rousey-rips-UFC-pay-says-fighters-are-living-at-poverty-level-200416"},"modified":"2026-03-10T23:54:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T23:54:06","slug":"ronda-rousey-rips-ufc-pay-says-fighters-are-living-at-poverty-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/ronda-rousey-rips-ufc-pay-says-fighters-are-living-at-poverty-level\/","title":{"rendered":"Ronda Rousey rips UFC pay, says fighters are living at ‘poverty level’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

If the timing had been right, Ronda
\nRousey<\/a> would have made her return to mixed martial arts under
\nthe
\nUFC<\/a> banner.<\/p>\n

During a press conference to promote her upcoming bout with
\nGina
\nCarano<\/a>, Rousey said that the initial plan was to book the bout
\nas part of the UFC\u2019s last pay-per-view event under the ESPN
\nbroadcast deal this past December. However, that timeline didn\u2019t
\nwork for Carano, and when the UFC moved away from a pay-per-view
\nmodel as a result of its new media rights deal with Paramount, the
\nfight moved to a new platform. Now, Most Valuable Promotions will
\nstage
\nRousey vs. Carano<\/a>, and the bout will mark the first MMA event
\non Netflix on May 16.<\/p>\n

\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cI knew that we could promote this on our own and probably be the
\nmost lucrative way to go about it for us, but I have such love and
\nrespect for Dana that I wanted to bring this to him first,\u201d Rousey
\nsaid at the presser. \u201cI said, \u2018I know I can do this on my own, but
\nI would rather fight for you than to fight for me, just make it
\nmake sense for me.\u2019 And originally we were going to do it New
\nYear\u2019s and it was going to be the last fight under the pay-per-view
\nmodel and he offered me the best pay-per-view structure ever and I
\nwas so grateful, but then Gina said she needed more time to get in
\nthe best shape possible and that she wanted me to fight the best
\nversion of herself and I think that was fate. It was meant to be.
\nIt was meant to push us onto the other side and once they moved
\ninto the streaming model, it\u2019s just not about putting on the best
\nfights possible anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rousey echoes complaints lodged by many in the MMA community
\nrecently: That the UFC has less incentive to put on the best fights
\npossible thanks to guaranteed money from Paramount. The Olympic
\njudoka also claimed that UFC athletes today are struggling more
\nfinancially than they did in the past. While the UFC recently
\nraised post-fight bonuses from $50,000 to $100,000, there hasn\u2019t
\nbeen any indication that fight purses have increased. Fighter pay
\ncame under even more scrutiny when Zuffa Boxing, which is owned by
\nthe same parent company as the UFC, paid Conor Benn $15 million for
\na one-fight deal.<\/p>\n

\u2018They\u2019re Thinking About Shareholders\u2019<\/h2>\n

\u201cIt used to be that UFC was the best place that you could come in
\ncombat sports to make a living and be paid fairly and now it\u2019s one
\nof the worst places to go,\u201d Rousey said.. \u201cIt\u2019s why so many of
\ntheir top athletes are leaving to go and find pay elsewhere. It\u2019s
\nwhy their champions like Valentina [Shevcheko] are selling pictures
\nof their titties on OnlyFans. These people, a lot of them at the
\nground level, they can\u2019t support their families. They\u2019re living
\npoverty-level fighting full-time. This company just got $7.7
\nbillion dollars. There\u2019s no reason that they can\u2019t afford to pay
\ntheir athletes at least a living wage and not even that, to at
\nleast be able to match what these athletes are making in other
\nsports.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would they expect to get the best athletes and the best
\ninspiring kids that want to be something into MMA? Why not go into
\nfootball? Why not go into boxing? Why not go into anything else? So
\nthey\u2019re bleeding talent because of their short-term greed. They\u2019re
\nthinking about the next quarter. They\u2019re thinking about the
\nshareholders. They\u2019re not thinking about their responsibility to be
\nstewards of the future of the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rousey made it clear that her criticism of the UFC is based more on
\nwhat she preceives as the philosophy of the TKO Group Holdings
\nownership group than anything to do with White.<\/p>\n

“Most of my criticism of the UFC now is because Dana isn’t the
\nowner and he isn’t calling the shots, and he isn’t running things
\nthe way he wants because he’s an employee of the company now. He’s
\nnot the owner,\u201d Rousey said. I think it was a big mistake of theirs
\nto not let him run the company the way he always has.\u201d<\/p>\n