Curtis Blaydes and former Bellator MMA Heavyweight Champion Alexander Volkov will headline UFC Fight Night: Blaydes vs. Volkov this Saturday Night.
A hot topic in the MMA community right now has to do with fighter pay and Blaydes has an interesting take on that subject.
“I don’t want to hear all those excuses, the money is there,” Blaydes said to CBS Sports. “I don’t want to hear the excuses. Even if you just bumped us up to like 29% of revenue, that would be a giant raise for guys. I don’t want to hear that. If you don’t want to pay us, just say you don’t want to give us the money. Just say that and don’t make excuses like, ‘I don’t know where it’s going to come from.’ It’s like, bro, don’t do that. Don’t disrespect our intelligence like that. We are worth more. If you don’t want to pay us, just say that and we can make our own informed decisions. It’s like you trying to pee on us and calling it rain like we’re dumb. I know we get hit in the head a lot but we are not dumb.”
Multiple fighters, including UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones, BMF Champion Jorge Masvidal and Cub Swanson have spoken out on fighter pay in recent weeks.
Blaydes also says the situation between the UFC and the fighters over pay has become an embarrassing situation.
“I don’t like seeing guys go into a war against one another where both guys are amazing and are fighting for $12,000 [to show] and $12,000 [to win],” Blaydes said. “It’s a little embarrassing. These are top athletes and a lot of them have to have [other] jobs still. If you want this sport to grow, you need to provide more amenities for us as far as training. You can’t have guys who are ranked who have to drive for Uber. That’s embarrassing.”
UFC Fight Night: Blaydes vs. Volkov takes place on Saturday, June 20 from the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada with Curtis Blaydes and Alexander Volkov headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, which airs live on ESPN.
