INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Ronda Rousey is holding back no punches when it comes to her feelings towards the UFC.
Rousey (12-2), a former UFC champion and one of the biggest stars in MMA history, went off on UFC fighter pay at Tuesday’s press conference promoting her highly anticipated return to MMA against Gina Carano on Netflix’s first-ever MMA event on May 16 at Intuit Dome. Rousey called the UFC “one of the worst places” to fight, and blamed them for not making MMA a desirable sport for young athletes.
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“It used to be that UFC was the best place in combat sports to make a living and get paid fairly, and now it’s no longer,” Rousey said. “It’s one of the worst places to go. It’s why so many of their top athletes are leaving to go and find pay elsewhere. It’s why their champions, like Valentina (Shevchenko), are selling pictures of their titties on OnlyFans, you know?”These people, a lot of them at the ground level, they can’t support their families. They’re living in poverty level fighting full-time, and this company just got $7.7 billion. Like, there’s no reason they can’t afford to pay their athletes at least a living wage, and not even that, at least to match what athletes are making in other sports. Why would they expect to get the best athletes and best aspiring kids that want to be something into MMA? Why not go into football? Why not go into boxing? Why not go into anything else? They’re bleeding talent because of their short-term greed. They’re thinking about quarter, they’re thinking about shareholders, and they’re not thinking about their responsibility to be stewards of the future of the sport.”
The UFC is currently fighting an antitrust lawsuit – Johnson vs. Zuffa – and recently had to pay $375 million in settlement of another antitrust lawsuit – Le vs. Zuffa. Both lawsuits allege that Zuffa has illegally suppressed compensation and maintained a monopsony for MMA.
Criticism of UFC fighter pay is not new among fans, fighters, and media. However, it is surprising to many to see Rousey speak out against the UFC, as she’s never publicly had issues with it and has been vocal about being a personal friend of UFC CEO Dana White.
When asked how White could feel about her comments, Rousey said she won’t think it would affect their relationship. Although there’s no evidence that fighter pay has decreased following the promotion’s sale in 2016, Rousey blames the lack of pay on the poor treatment of athletes by the new regime, not White.
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“Most of my criticism of the UFC now is because Dana (White) isn’t the owner and he isn’t calling the shots, and he isn’t running things the way he wants because he’s an employee of the company now. He’s not the owner. I think it was a big mistake of theirs to not let him run the company the way he always has.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC Hall of Famer Ronda Rousey rips promotion’s low fighter pay
