Former UFC heavyweight Travis Browne, who is married to one of the best-paid MMA fighters ever in Ronda Rousey, says that his former peers should stop acting like "whiny little b*tches" when it comes to the fighter pay debate.
The issue of the UFC's payment to its fighters has been a hot topic in recent months as several figures both within and outside the organization have stated their unhappiness with the payment model as it exists in its current form.
The rancor between fighters and UFC brass has recently seen an unlikely benefactor enter the fray in Jake Paul, the YouTuber-turned-boxer who has been a frequent critic of UFC president Dana White in recent months for what he sees as unequal pay packets being distributed to MMA fighters under his employ.
Paul, it seems, has taken great pleasure in his verbal jabs at White - particularly when he handed out career-high paydays to both Ben Askren and Tyron Woodley for their boxing matches against the former Disney star this year.
Paul also contributed several thousands dollars to an online crowdfunding campaign launched by UFC fighter Sarah Alpar after she complained publicly that her UFC checks don't come close to covering her training expenses.
But according to Travis Browne, who fought in the UFC's heavyweight frame between 2010 and 2017, the complaints fro Jake Paul and elsewhere are nothing but hot air.
"You guys always paid me what you said you were gonna pay me, and most of the time, it was actually more," said Browne to White on a recent episode of his 'Tough Business' podcast.
"So, all these people that are complaining about it, that are just talking sh*t about it, at the end of the day, I’m the one that signed that f*cking contract. And then I’m gonna turn around and bitch about it? Or I'm going to b*tch about it to a f*cking reporter or something like that?
"You guys have always treated me right," Browne elaborated to White. "The pay has been there, and again, it’s always been at least what the contract was, and most of the time it was more. So these people that are complaining, people in the media that don’t f*cking hear that they hear the little b*tch that’s crying and complaining. Because you get these, like, entitled people. Or I don’t know where the f*ck it comes from.
"It’s like, they’re just whiny little bitches, and then they go to more whiny little bitches that’ll write about it."
Browne, it should be noted, has been married since 2017 to Ronda Rousey, one of the best-paid UFC athletes in history - a fighter who earned in excess of $3 million for her 48-second defeat to Amanda Nunes in what remains the final fight of her career, a sum which is vastly in excess of the total career earnings that most UFC fighters can expect.
Of course, a key marker for increased fighter pay can only likely come through a collective bargaining agreement between athletes as has happened in numerous American sports leagues such as the NFL.
But while that has led to around 50% of NFL profits being paid directly to players, recent estimates have suggested that only around 10-15% of the UFC's revenue ends up in its fighters' bank accounts.
Former UFC title challenger Nate Quarry is another who has been vocal in recent years about the perceived inequality in UFC pay, and took issue with Browne's statements on social media.
"The major sports of the NFL, the NBA, the MLB all have bargaining rights and the players make roughly 50% of the take because some 'whiny little bitches' said NO to the billionaire owners. Always amazes me to see a member of the working class side with the owners," wrote Quarry.
"The major sports of the NFL, the NBA, the MLB all have bargaining rights and the players make roughly 50% of the take because some 'whiny little bitches' said NO to the billionaire owners. Always amazes me to see a member of the working class side with the owners."
And given the UFC's opposition to the implementation of any type of fighters' union which could potentially bring about financial change, it seems that the very type of "whining" that Browne and White dismissed as the overeager anger of money-hungry fighters isn't going away any time soon - and as the evidence suggests, much or most of it will fall upon deaf ears.
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