After Dana White threw a few backhanded compliments the way of Jake Paul after UFC 261 on Saturday night, Paul responded Sunday and took aim at how much the UFC pays its fighters.
White told MMA Junkie after UFC 261 that he wouldn’t be interested in doing business with Paul, a YouTube star-turned-boxer who eight days ago knocked out ex-UFC fighter Ben Askren in a boxing pay-per-view headliner. White questioned the legitimacy of the pay-per-view numbers Triller Fight Club reportedly did for the event, which was part boxing card, part concert, and nearly all spectacle.
Paul said he made more in his third boxing match than the UFC has ever paid any fighter, save for former champions Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor.
And he challenged White to make the heavyweight title fight between new champion Francis Ngannou and former light heavyweight champ Jon Jones – which seemed to be a sure thing until Jones and White recently re-upped their squabbles publicly over how much Jones will get paid.
“Dana you claimed you would be $1M on me losing. Set up Askren to train with Freddie Roach…game him full access to UFCPI…and he still got his ass handed to him. Seems like you are the real douche…not Ariel. In my 3rd fight I made more more in total pay than any fighter in UFC history. Maybe it’s time to pay your fighters their fair share? No wonder they all want to get into boxing. Dana you say you make the fights fans want to see…so hurry up and make Jones vs. N’gannou. Pay them their fair share….$10M purse for each guy, plus PPV. Why are UFC fighters so underpaid vs. Boxers? Why did I make more in my 3rd fight than all but two (Khabib & Conor) UFC fighters have in history? I know why…”
. @danawhite pic.twitter.com/SI48eGkoaO
— Jake Paul (@jakepaul) April 25, 2021
Paul attended UFC 261 on Saturday night at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Fla., which had fans in attendance for the first time in more than a year. Many fans taunted Paul with a chant, and he also was confronted by former heavyweight and light heavyweight champ Daniel Cormier, who left the broadcast booth to get in Paul’s face over comments Paul made on a podcast.
Still, though Paul regularly is in the news in the MMA world and claims his win over Askren could lure the likes of McGregor into an eventual boxing match, White said Paul’s brand – or Triller’s brand – of combat sports isn’t something he’s interested in being a part of.
“There is a market for that,” White said. “That is not what I do. That’s not what I do. People want to see that, and it’s great, and this kid’s going to make a couple bucks before this ride is over. It’s just not what I do. What I do is what happened tonight. What happened tonight is, we sold this place out and it was packed, and the numbers that you’re hearing (Triller) did – they’re full of s**t. They’re full of s**t. OK? They didn’t pull those kind of numbers at all – not even f**king close. What happened here tonight is what I do: The best vs. the best.”
Jake Paul takes aim at ‘real douche’ Dana White over UFC fighter pay