Getty Image / Sam Hodde
Boxer Jake Paul sat down with ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson and one of the things they discussed was Jake Paul lobbying for UFC fighters to receive minimum pay of $50,000.
Currently, the minimum pay for UFC fighters is $12,500 per fight. In many cases, that pay doesn’t even cover a UFC fighter’s expenses once training and travel are factored in. Jake Paul has spoken out in the past about the importance of paying fighters more but that topic came up again on his Hotboxin’ with Mike Tyson appearance this week.
Speaking about UFC fighter pay, Jake said:
“The fighter minimum in the UFC is $12,500. It should be at least $50,000. If they made it $50,000, that would change the smaller fighters’ lives in a big, big, big way. They wouldn’t have to work other jobs, they could afford gym fees, they could afford the proper food. Right now, they’re working other jobs barely scraping by.”
He’s not wrong. The industry knows this. But Dana White and the UFC have slowly raised pay and rolled out new ways for fighters to earn more pay throughout the years. Sure, things could happen faster but it’s not as if the ‘fighter pay’ conversations are happening in an echo chamber.
In response to Dana White recently admitting he doesn’t hate Jake Paul, Jake said “I don’t hate him either, I just want him to pay fighters more. You know, now that the company is making billions of dollars a year, and the fighters are only getting 15 percent of it. That’s really where all of it stems from, is wanting higher fighter pay and long-term health care for the fighters.”
He went on to add “Obviously, we’ve gotten into these exchanges that muddies the purpose of why I’ve argued with him. You know, he throws out the fights are rigged, he’s on steroids; then I say something back about him being bald and ugly. It gets too messy and then we start going back and forth.”
What’s next for Jake Paul?
Jake’s riding high right now after beating Nate Diaz on August 5th in Dallas. A fight that Nate Diaz was set to earn a reported $15-20 million for.
Paul has made no attempt to hide his eagerness for a rematch against Tommy Fury, who Jake lost to back in February, the first loss of his boxing career.
Speaking about that with Mike Tyson, Jake said “I think the Tommy rematch is going to happen at some point, I put him down on the canvas and lost a split decision. He caught me at my worst and kudos to him.”
He added “I needed the loss, it put me on a new track of having this insane amount of motivation and just being super locked in. I wasn’t that locked in before and I was trying to cut corners, you just can’t do that in this sport.”
Jake Paul went on to say “When you’re beating everyone, putting them down on the canvas, winning knockout of the year and making $10 to $20million, you’re kind of like ‘Who’s going to beat me?’ and then you get beat.”
Fury is set to fight KSI in October. It remains to be seen if Jake will get the rematch after that or if he’ll set up another fight in the meantime.