Michael "Venom" Page isn't holding back. Speaking on The Boys in the Back podcast on Tuesday, the British welterweight contender delivered a pointed critique of the UFC's fighter pay structure.
With Zuffa Boxing, Dana White's boxing venture under the TKO umbrella, reportedly handing Conor Benn a staggering $15 million for a single fight, Page and fellow UFC fighters are left wondering when some of that sun win will shine on the fighters who helped build the Zuffa empire.
The $15M Elephant in the Room
The Benn deal ignited immediate backlash within UFC circles. Longtime boxing journalist Dan Rafael reported that the British welterweight signed a one-fight contract with Zuffa Boxing worth $15 million — a number that would be exceptional even for established UFC stars, let alone a boxer whom Page himself described bluntly:
I love Conor Benn, but he's nowhere near the best in his field.
Zuffa Boxing is a joint venture between UFC parent company TKO Group Holdings and the Saudi Arabia-based company Sela, with Dana White serving as its lead promoter.
Former UFC champion Sean O'Malley echoed Page's disbelief yesterday, publicly stunned that a fighter he barely recognized could command that kind of money from an organization that regularly pays its own world champions a fraction of that figure.
Eddie Hearn, who lost Benn from Matchroom Boxing, summed up the broader sentiment: "They're sick as a dog. There's no loyalty."
Page on the UFC's Paramount "Bonus Bump"
Dana White had promised fighters would see the financial benefit in the Paramount+ era. What they got: post-fight bonuses were doubled from $50,000 to $100,000, with an additional $25,000 "finish bonus" introduced for fighters who secure a KO or submission but aren't selected for Performance or Fight of the Night honors.
Page was not impressed. On the podcast, he made clear the bump doesn't match the scale of what the company is now pulling in:
This is why I wasn't initially excited about it, because for me, it doesn't do enough compared to the amount of money they've just brought in for themselves. To see how highly [Dana White] values people away from the sport that built his reputation, it's just upsetting, to be fair. It's disappointing more than anything. That's all I'll say on that.
The math is hard to argue with. A $7.7 billion deal generates over $1.1 billion per year for TKO. Doubling a $50K bonus to $100K, handed out to only a handful of fighters per event, represents a rounding error in that context.
"Champions Shouldn't Be Broke"
Page went further, tying the Benn conversation to a long-running grievance in the sport: elite fighters reaching the pinnacle of MMA and still struggling financially.
I hate hearing stories of fighters getting to what is the pinnacle of our careers in terms of the UFC and still being broke. That just shouldn't exist.
He pointed directly to the widely discussed case of Francis Ngannou, who was UFC Heavyweight Champion of the World while reportedly borrowing money from former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman just to get by.
This is something people have complained about. Francis Ngannou being the heavyweight champion of the world and broke, borrowing money from a friend of his, [Kamaru] Usman. Why was he even in that situation is the question for me.
It's worth noting the UFC recently disbursed $375 million to settle the Le vs. Zuffa antitrust lawsuit, which alleged the company had unlawfully suppressed fighter compensation. A separate antitrust case, Johnson vs. Zuffa, is currently ongoing with similar claims.
How the Sam Patterson Fight at UFC London Came Together
On a lighter note, Page also addressed how his upcoming bout against Sam Patterson at UFC Fight Night: Evloev vs. Murphy on March 21 at The O2 Arena in London came to be booked — and it wasn't exactly the matchup he had in mind.
I've been asking for a lot of different fighters and not really getting responses, and I wasn't panicking, but I definitely felt more urgency when I was speaking to the UFC. I was like, 'What's going on? Who am I going to be fighting?
We had a few back-and-forths and ended up pushing a ton of names over that we hadn't really considered before because they weren't the high-level names. It's an unusual one, but either way, I'm excited to be back in the cage. I'm glad I didn't miss the opportunity to fight back in the UK.
Page had previously told media that the booking "feels like I upset somebody" at the UFC, given that [despite an impressive four-fight first-round stoppage streak] Patterson is not the high-profile welterweight opponent Page was pursuing after back-to-back middleweight wins over Shara Magomedov and Jared Cannonier.
Patterson enters the fight at 6'4" with serious knockout and submission power, and he has previously cited Page as an inspiration.sports.yahoo+1
The event streams live on Paramount+ on March 21, headlined by the featherweight title eliminator between Movsar Evloev and Lerone Murphy.