UFC CEO Dana White has evidence that he pays his fighters well, as he says Jim Miller has made millions of dollars in his career.
Fighter pay has been a hot topic among fans and critics of the UFC. White, however, has been adamant he pays the fighters what they deserve and points to the boxing model where only the top-level fighters make all the money, instead, he says anyone in the UFC can make a solid living.
“There is a I guess you can call it a standard level of pay and depending on who you are and how you make it, how you climb up the ladder. So, what happens is when you become a champion, you become a partner. You share in the pay-per-view revenue… Boxing does [it too]. Whoever is the champion in boxing, you get the lion’s share of the revenue. Here, it’s dispersed through across everybody,” White said to Vivek Ramaswamy on The Truth Podcast.
Dana White points to Jim Miller’s income to defend fighter pay
One way that UFC CEO Dana White is defending his fighter pay is by pointing to what Jim Miller has made in his career.
Miller has been in the UFC since 2008 and has the most fights and wins in the promotion’s history. However, Miller has never been a UFC champion or pay-per-view star, but despite that, White says he’s made millions of dollars.
“We got a guy right now who’s 40 years old and he’s on this hot streak, man. His name’s Jim Miller. He’s been around forever. He’s been around since like we bought the company and he’s still fighting. He’s gonna fight on UFC 300 and this is a guy who’s been — I guess you could call him a journeyman in boxing (terms), right? If you ask most people, they wouldn’t know who Jim Miller is, and the guy’s made millions of dollars,” White added.
Jim Miller has fought 43 times in the UFC so many would hope he would have made millions of dollars. But, White believes had Miller been a boxer, he would have never come close to making millions of dollars.
