Dana White got into a fighter pay debate on Thursday that lasted two words, and both of them were aimed at the crowd.
Midway through the UFC 334 pre-fight press conference at Madison Square Garden, a reporter asked White about Josh Hokit, the heavyweight whose trash talk and quick climb have landed him across from Ciryl Gane this weekend. White started in on it. “Am I surprised that he is here?” he said, then added, “Listen, he made it.” He didn’t get much further. Someone in the audience yelled, “Dana, pay your fighters!”
White turned toward the voice. “Shut up,” he said, and went right back to the presser. Hokit, on stage with the rest of the main card, couldn’t stop laughing. Oscar Willis posted the clip on X and it made the rounds by Friday morning.
It was already a loud afternoon before the heckle. Hokit spent part of it going after the mothers of Gane and Alex Pereira, which is one way to sell a fight.
Old fight, new heckler
Essentially Sports noted that White usually fields the pay question from reporters, and this looks like the first time it came from someone in the crowd.
The question never really goes away. The standard criticism is that the UFC pays out roughly 20% of its revenue to fighters, while the NFL and NBA share around half with their players. Lower and mid-tier contracts often run $10,000 to show and $10,000 to win, so a loss cuts the check in half before the manager and the taxman take their pieces. Demetrious Johnson has said he wasn’t paid well as flyweight champion.
The courts have weighed in too. The 2014 Le v. Zuffa antitrust suit, which accused the promotion of suppressing earnings through restrictive contracts, ended in a $375 million settlement in 2024, with final approval coming in February 2025. Two other suits filed on similar grounds are still unresolved.
White has ducked this before. At the UFC 189 press conference in 2015, when a reporter asked Jose Aldo about pay, White jumped in with a joke claiming Aldo had just insulted the reporter. Then in August 2025, after the UFC landed its $7.7 billion broadcast deal with Paramount, White suggested fighters would see more money, Bloody Elbow reported.
The loudest voice on the subject this year belongs to middleweight champion Sean Strickland. Before his February fight with Anthony Hernandez at UFC Houston, he told Complex that the company’s treatment of fighters was predatory. In July he went on Shawn Ryan’s show and laid out the math on a 10-and-10 deal, saying a guy who loses walks away with seven or eight grand after his manager and taxes.
Strickland was also unhappy with the offer for a rumored December title defense against Nassourdine Imavov, and he floated finishing out his contract at 205 pounds before chasing a Jake Paul payday. White answered in October, pointing out that Strickland had signed a new contract in May and saying the number Strickland was putting out there wasn’t true. Per Essentially Sports, Strickland and Imavov are now rumored for February 2027 in Florida.
I like people who answer questions straight, and I’ll give White this much: his two-word reply to the heckler was the most direct thing he’s said about fighter pay in a long time. It also wasn’t an answer, and the 20% figure isn’t going anywhere because one fan got told off at the Garden. Hokit, the guy laughing hardest on that stage, fights Gane this weekend. Nobody asked him what he’s getting paid.
