The reaction to UFC’s groundbreaking deal with Paramount has resulted in many reactions.
On Monday, news broke that Paramount had pushed a whopping $7.7 billion to become the exclusive streaming home for the 2026 Ultimate Fighting Championship event.
It was enough news to please the fight fans.
However, there has been a lot of talk about how eliminating the outdated pay-per-view model will affect fighter salaries. Traditionally, UFC Championships and Top Stars receive PPV points as part of their contracts. Essentially, fighters can earn bonuses based on the purchase rate for a particular PPV event. The more people buy it, the more money the athlete will bring home.
Does that mean fighters will lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in the process, as PPVs were essentially eliminated as of 2026? One of the UFC legends suggests that it may be, but three-time UFC title challenger Chael Sonnen disagrees.
“The idea that fighter jets will pay less is that fighters never get paid less,” he said via his YouTube channel. “And that includes years when companies were less. If your conclusion is that fighters are less than they are now, then I feel you missed the point a lot while being given the gift of not paying for a pay-per-view anymore.
“It’s never in history, including the year when the UFC lost money. There, fighter salaries didn’t rise year-on-year. By the way, it wasn’t negotiated. The idea that MMA fighters know what they make is simply wrong.”
Dana White addresses fighter concerns.
Following a new episode of Dana White’s candidate series on Tuesday, the UFC CEO briefly tackled some of the concerns surrounding fighter salaries, revealing that the bonus has been “evidently” rising.
“Listen, we still have to get together and understand things like this, so I’m not going to comment on it,” White told reporters. Candidate Series Tuesday’s Scrum. “It’s August. You need to understand that until January. But the answer is simple. The bonus is clearly rising. It’s getting bigger. Forget the tide rises along with all the other fighters. Just the number of bonuses bring to the fighters.”