Jorge Masvidal took a side in the Sean Strickland pay fight, and he took it fast. Speaking to Home of Fight, Masvidal, who is still under UFC contract himself, said the middleweight champion is worth eight figures. “When I think about the amount of views and headlines this guy generates, I would say he’s worth that $10 million,” he said. He guessed the UFC might be offering $2 million to $3 million, then admitted, “I have no idea.” That’s an honest disclaimer, and it’s more transparency than we usually get from either side of a UFC contract.
Here’s the background. Strickland (31-7 MMA, 18-7 UFC) is negotiating his next title defense against Nassourdine Imavov. During that negotiation he went public on fighter pay, threatened to walk away from his belt, and said he’s considering fighting out his contract so he can go box Jake Paul. Masvidal’s answer to that last part was the line everyone grabbed: “It shouldn’t even be an option for him to go box Jake f*cking Paul.”
So will any of this create lasting change? No. Strickland might get paid. The system stays put.
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The mailbag has the structure right
MMA Fighting’s weekly mailbag took the same question on Monday and answered it bluntly: one fighter can’t move the UFC. The math there is familiar. The promotion pays fighters roughly 18 to 20 percent of revenue, a share the column called a pittance compared with other major leagues. The contract math is worse. According to the mailbag, Strickland allegedly had to sign a new six-fight deal to get his title shot, which leaves five bouts on the paper. The UFC decides who he fights, when, and where. If he tries to grind those five out, the promotion can make the grind miserable.
The column also raised a point I think matters more than any single paycheck. If Strickland could get himself released by being impossible on a microphone, every unhappy fighter on the roster would copy him. The mailbag named Paulo Costa as the obvious next case. The UFC can’t allow that precedent, so it won’t. The column put the company’s interest in letting Strickland go box Paul at zero, in all caps, and I agree with every letter.
On pensions, the reader question that kicked off the discussion noted that health insurance took the UFC a long time to add. The mailbag’s view was that a retirement fund would cost the company very little, but the UFC has no business reason to offer one. The best fighters already want to be there, and the company prefers to keep them classified as private contractors. That conclusion is grim and I think it’s correct. Benefits arrive when fighters organize, and nobody is organizing.
Where Masvidal has the better argument
The mailbag treats Strickland’s leverage as zero. I’d put it a little higher, because Masvidal is right about what kind of star Strickland is. Masvidal ranked him among the top three stars in the company, and he argued that even Ilia Topuria and Justin Gaethje lack the devoted following Strickland has. The ranking is debatable. The résumé is settled. Strickland took the belt from Israel Adesanya as a big underdog and then beat Khamzat Chimaev as a big underdog. I’ve rewatched both, and both times the people telling you it was over before the cage door shut were wrong.
That’s the leverage. Masvidal’s own description of him fits: “Super controversial guy, super fun to watch, happens to be the current world champion.” A champion openly comparing his UFC money with a Jake Paul payday is bad advertising for a company Masvidal says brings in $1.3 billion a year. The UFC can’t free Strickland without setting the Costa precedent, but it can quietly raise his number for the Imavov fight and make the conversation stop. That’s the realistic ceiling here. One champion gets a better deal, and the 18 to 20 percent stays exactly where it is.
I’d also push back a little on the idea that complaining does nothing. Masvidal said it pains him to hear about Strickland’s situation, and the reason it stings is that a guy with two upset title wins has to shout to get paid like a headliner. That kind of noise won’t change policy. What it will do is raise the price of the next main event, because every fighter at the top of a card now has a public comparison point.
Still, Strickland is one man with five fights left, a title defense to book, and an employer that holds every scheduling lever. He’ll probably make Imavov, collect more than he would have if he’d stayed quiet, and the fighter pay structure will be unchanged the morning after. Dana White likes to say his competition is the NFL and the NBA. Those leagues have unions. Until UFC fighters have one, a champion’s tirade gets that champion a raise and nothing more.
