The ongoing battle between mixed martial arts and boxing continued at a Most Valuable Promotions media event, with Jake Paul and Nakisa Bidarian’s fight firm entering the MMA space with an upcoming Netflix fight between combat legends Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano.
It began with a bold comment from Paul, renowned for baiting many from MMA and boxing alike, storming his way to prominent positions in the latter as he secured himself high-profile, highly-watched spectacles involving Mike Tyson and Anthony Joshua.
“I believe the UFC is dying,” he said, “and MVP is here to take over.”
For Paul, “MMA is in a weird position right now,” hinting at struggles to book the biggest bouts like Jon Jones vs Tom Aspinall and Jon Jones vs Francis Ngannou among others, with increasingly agitated superstars, with Jones himself asking for a release this week from his contract.
“I think we’ll see more UFC fighters go and sign with Eddie Hearn, which I think is a very smart move on their part,” Paul said, suggesting more fighters may follow UFC heavyweight champion Aspinall into Matchroom’s talent agency.
Paul’s business partner Bidarian added: “Eddie Hearn as an agitator is funny in many ways but can be powerful because there’s never been a sophisticated manager at his level who’s running a billion dollar promotional business that understands the inside and outside of fighter contracts the way that he does.”
Paul and Bidarian’s comments weren’t the only ones newsworthy when it came to the increasingly cross-pollenated combat worlds.
Rousey, who fights Carano on May 16 at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, blasted the UFC over fighter pay.
UFC fighters command a significantly lower percentage of revenue than athletes in other sports, with rostered MMA fighters receiving 16-20% compared to more than 50% in major league sports.
“It’s why their champions like Valentina [Schevchenko] are selling pictures of their t****** on OnlyFans.”
Rousey, one of the UFC’s biggest-ever stars, said: “It used to be that UFC was the best place that you could come in combat sports to make a living and be paid fairly, and now it’s one of the worst places to go.”
She added: “It’s why so many of their top athletes are leaving to go and find pay elsewhere. A lot of these people at the ground level, they can’t support their families. They’re living at poverty level while fighting full time, and this company just got $7.7 billion [through its broadcast deal with Paramount+, over the next seven years].
“There’s no reason that they can’t afford to at least pay their athletes a living wage and at least be able to match what these athletes are making in other sports.
“Why would they expect to get the best athletes and 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 are bleeding talent because of their short term greed. They’re thinking about the next quarter, they’re thinking about the shareholders, and they’re not thinking about their responsibility to be stewards of the future of the sport.”
MUST READ: