Amanda Nunes was able to cash in on her victory check after a dominant performance at UFC 250. However her old foe Cris Cyborg thinks that this check should have been for a lot more money.
When Cyborg departed from the UFC, it was not necessarily due to a dispute over her pay. The former featherweight champ had disagreements with Dana White for years before she was even signed by the promotion. This tension only amplified by the end of her contact, leading to her not being re-signed by the promotion, with her instead making the jump to Bellator.
However since her promotional change, Cris Cyborg has been vocal about how she feels that the UFC does not pay it’s fighters enough. Even her former opponent Amanda Nunes, who made $450,000 in her win at UFC 250, should be making more money in her opinion. Cris took to Twitter to share this sentiment, saying that Nunes should be making seven figures per fight.
“Nunes deserves to be getting a million every fight. Hopefully with total compensation she’s getting that…”
Nunes deserves to be getting a million every fight. Hopefully with total compensation she’s getting that… https://t.co/vvoeXJejLC
— CrisCyborg.Com (@criscyborg) June 7, 2020
Cyborg is not the only fighter to be speaking up about fighter pay recently. In the course of a few weeks, we have seen Henry Cejudo retire, Jon Jones threaten to vacate the belt, and Jorge Masvidal ask for his release. All of these fighters are unhappy with the money they are making. This makes it hard to believe that there is not at least some sort of merit to these claims.
It seems like it will be an eternal battle between the UFC and it’s athletes, when it comes to the proper compensation for athletes. Nevertheless, it is good to see people like Cris Cyborg and others speaking up about this. Perhaps eventually something will change, but there are still serval more steps before anything major can happen.