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Joe Rogan has finally spoken out on the issue of UFC's unwillingness to increase fighters' pay.
Over the last few weeks, there has been havoc amid the ranks in the UFC as multiple superstars including Henry Cejudo, Conor McGregor, Jon Jones, and Jorge Masvidal have either announced their decision to retire from the fight game or threatening to leave if their demands aren't met by the organization. The likes of Jorge Masvidal and Jon Jones openly criticized the UFC and its president, Dana White for refusing to increase their pay, going to the extent of branding their current employer as a "liar".
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Joe Rogan says Coronavirus is to be partly blamed for UFC's unwillingness to increase fighters' pay
'Now, UFC commentator Joe Rogan has expressed his thoughts on the matter. Speaking on his Joe Rogan Experience podcast (via MMA Fighting), the former comedian said that the UFC’s unwillingness to pay the fighters at the moment may have something to do with the financial losses it may have incurred while trying to keep functioning during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and due to the fact that the events being held are all closed-door events so there are no fans buying the tickets for these shows.
“Right now in particular, there is probably less money because there is no live gate, and that’s an extreme amount of money. But there’s also fighters that agree to certain deals. They agree to like, an 8-fight deal at X amount per fight, and then they become more popular and then they want to renegotiate their deal, and the UFC is like, ‘Look, we’re just trying to stay open. We’re not going to renegotiate anything. You can take it or you can leave it, but this is what it is.’ I think it’s a matter of that."
Joe Rogan further said that the UFC enjoys monopoly in the fight game and is the only combat sports organization holding live events at the moment because they are the ones who can pull it all successfully; because they are the best in the business. Joe Rogan admits that the pandemic has certainly hurt the inflow of income in the promotion but he's certain that the UFC is still a good place to be employed with and when the time is right, fighters will get what they deserve.
“It’s not a monopoly in that you do have choices, but there’s one clear, top of the food chain choice. But it’s because they do it the best,” Rogan continued. “They’re also the only ones that are having fights during this quarantine. The only people that are putting on any live sporting events, but they’re also part of a company in WME that’s hurting, really, really bad. So there’s not a lot of money to throw around. To keep the doors open, to keep people employed, a lot of money is missing. All these shows got cancelled, there’s all these audience members that aren’t gonna be there, that aren’t buying tickets, so it’s tricky. So this is why I think they’re complaining about fighter pay.”
