Sean Strickland vs The “CRIMINAL” UFC Pay

This is a video discussing Sean Stricklands criticism of the UFC’s pay structure and their treatment of lower level fighters and his decision to wait for a title shot instead of facing Robert Whittaker.

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[Music] at UFC 297 Shan Strickland lost his belt by razor thin Split Decision weeks later he appeared to take out some of his anger on the social influencing punching bag sneako this must have been therapeutic for Shawn as we know his take on social influences you guys don’t understand these people at these slap fights they’re not people they’re influencers they’re like they have this weird God complex and it’s just like when I’m around them I just want to hurt them all and they remind them you are just a human being shut the up I don’t know anything about sneo maybe he’s great like if he’s going into the performance Institute looking for viral content at least he had the decency to go through hell to get it but the clips reached one man who didn’t see it that way are you Tu turn fighter but it’s a it’s a typical story of the UFC guys who call me out and then go quiet I’ve got DMS I’ll put the DMS up on the screen I said I’ll send you the PJ let me know where we could Spar for a million dollars this put Strickland in an uncomfortable spot because he’s in the UFC so he ultimately had to decline while shaving face and sounding tough so Jak Paul offered me a million dollars knowing that it is impossible for me to do that and I actually talked to Hunter and Hunter explained to me that he sells no fights you can get in your fancy plane you could fly your ass to Vegas and we could have a little powwow I’ll do it for free I don’t need a check I don’t need to live stream it Sean can say that but he knows the people who fight Jake get paid some of them have got the biggest paydays of their lives he gave a more realistic appraisal of the situation on Twitter where we began to see signs of dissatisfaction with the UFC UFC isn’t the NFL or the NBA it’s absolutely Cutthroat if I fought Jake Paul one I’d murder him but two we would make millions and so that million dollars was just kind of left hanging out there just beyond Sea’s reach I don’t know what he made for the drish fight certainly over a million and now here was Jake’s offer which obviously puts the idea of a full Jake Paul fight into his head that’ll be worth millions these are the opportunities rolling around his head so it must have come as a disappointing shock when his next fight offer rolled in from the UFC and completely underwhelmed him on the 9th of April Pao k that revealed that Strickland had turned down a fight unfortunately I I don’t know what happen Strickland say no he don’t fight me Strickland refused strick refused to fight me unfortunately that’s what FFC told me you know Strickland actually confirmed that but asked his followers to guess how much he’d been offered for the fight one fan guessed 200k to show 200 to win and 10K fight week incentive Sean said close but less now it’s difficult to believe he he was offered less than 200,000 to show but I just don’t think he would lie about it this guy was just Champion lost a razor close Split Decision he thinks he deserves an immediate rematch there’s every argument in the world for that and instead they want to pay him peanuts to fight a [ __ ] gorilla he must have thought he was on power driil it was such a slap in the face and what’s this 10K fight we incentive I forgot about that whole thing when the UFC signed a rebok deal that basically killed a huge Revenue stream for fighters who were previously able to sell advertising on their shorts so to compensate them the UFC basically decided to toss them some scraps this is tiered by the number of fights they’ve had Fighters like Strickland with 21 or more UFC fights get $21,000 wow $21,000 that’s when you know you’ve hit the big time ESPN clarified that policy bundles together the outfitting policy promotional duties and the code of conduct for a per fight bonus in addition to a Fighter’s purse promotional duties so for media obligations they’re going to toss sea an extra $220,000 I’ll come back to this because this is kind of the Crux of the whole thing here and it’s why I think Sean’s case is kind of unique Sean like are you happy like are you happy with the way everything’s played out cuz right now you seem a little pissed off I’m not pissed off dude it’s like I’m like I’m at work right now you guys you think I wanted to do media day I meant to I have to do media day anyway they must have sweetened the deal to some degree enough to make him fight Paulo Costa but not enough to make him happy like the UFC doesn’t do the right things if you go look at you know if you go look at what these guys that run the UFC what they’re making to what guys get paid is [ __ ] [ __ ] dude it’s all these Corporation [ __ ] leeches dude like there was quite a lot of negativity there leeches this guy shoots from the hip despite any reservations or unhappiness Strickland ultimately got his hand raised good fight good win a little a good fight I don’t know about good but I won okay a few weeks later the subject of money was again on Strickland’s mind he had previously taken some shots at bare knuckle I mean they’re like bare knuckle you want to talk about [ __ ] Crooks dude they’re paying their guy [ __ ] Eddie Alvarez responded with a great sound bite called it like a [ __ ] promotion and that they pay like [ __ ] blah blah blah and I’m like I mean he he probably does well in UFC but like I may more than Sean Strickland I be knuckle yeah he’s complained about P too the big takeaway here was that Eddie matter of factly stated he was getting paid more at bkfc than Strickland was making in a UFC they pay like they pay more than you’re getting paid and you’re like this famous well-known he’s a guy you know he’s like a UFC character Eddie Alvarez a 40-year-old former lightweight who hasn’t been a contender since 2017 doesn’t have a massive rabid fan base and is fighting for a comp comparatively tiny promotion that guy is making more money than sha Strickland one controversial decision removed from the belt that is an indictment this was another Financial slap in the face to further feed Strickland’s dissatisfaction but then the king of violence himself Mike Perry rubs salt in the wound Sean Strickland he’s fighting for the UFC for pesos and I’m getting paid over here and he’s always posting videos on Instagram where he walks outside of his garage or front door and somebody’s in his driveway and he’s like trying to fight a bare knuckle for free right there so what are you talking about Sean like these guys are out here in the bkfc acting like Ballers Mike Perry was recently talking about buying himself a yacht obviously hyperbola but these guys aren’t complaining about money we’re get we’re getting paid so all of this fed in and Strickland’s anger and he then responded to Mike Perry with a skating Instagram rant against the UFC he called the pay utter garbage and stated that the lowest level entry pay of 10 and 10 should be criminal that is a very serious criticism of the UFC so Sha’s unhappiness is understandable he can see the money out there to be made Jake offers him a million for a gym session the bkfc guys are looking down on him while he feels like he needs to put a gun to the UFC’s head to get something reasonable out of them the UFC does not do the [ __ ] right things unless you hold him at [ __ ] you know gunpoint they ain’t going to [ __ ] do it so when Whitaker demolished rram in his most emphatic victory in years and the hype naturally began to build for Whitaker versus Strickland Sean quickly shot the idea down I beat Izzy the world knows I beat draus Whitaker lost to both I am the number one Contender I defended that spot easily against Costa I’ll wait now I would love to see that fight Whitaker is just Elite and they’ve both had a lot to say about each other’s Styles you know like Whitaker is just this one trick pony again Whitaker could fight but he’s a one tricking Pony and that’s the thing dude when you’re a one trick pony and that one trick works a lot it’sing great but when it doesn’t work time to [ __ ] do the man dance time to put your hands up and bang in the pocket his fight style looks annoying as hell dude like he looks like a kid like when a brother and sister is like I’m walking forward and if you walk into it it’s your own fault with the with those tee kicks just like rapid fire one off the other dude Strickland might not have the most exciting style but at this point it has become interesting to see if he can keep freezing and kind of confusing guys like kasta is one thing he did it to arisna too draus had an answer but got chewed up in the process so I just love to see him get in there with a high level cerebral problem Sol like Whitaker I just want to see what Whitaker would do with that style so I love the fight but I’m with Strickland with respect to his decision to wait for his shot I think he deserves it but I also think he’s in a uniquely blind spot with respect to the UFC’s Pace structure like there’s a lot of Fighters who could complain about money but I think Strickland situation is one of the toughest at UFC 297 Strickland lost his belt close fight could have gone either way so it doesn’t constitute a robbery it was one of those fights with was justifiable scorecards in either direction but that doesn’t mean there’s no robbery taking place overall the big robbery here is around the whole UFC pay structure and I think Strickland is just about the best example of this for a number of reasons Strickland was a champion beat the best middleweight of the last decade to get the belt beyond that though he cultivated a considerable following love him or hate him Strickland did his work both inside and outside the cage promoting himself building a following and becoming a personality many of his fans identify with Shawn on a deep ideological level so he’s not the most popular guy in the sport but he’s one of them and he’s got a ton of DieHard fans that whole Strickland Whirlwind was ready for him to take advantage of by taking a pay-per-view slice as a champion but that just wasn’t a be he lost the belt and now won’t be getting a cut of some of the critical fights that will probably represent his prime according to MMA decisions almost 60% of fans just under 45% of media members and the president of the company stricklin did enough to defend his belt against drers looking at these stats it was just the coin flippi of split decisions so like I think Strickland is very sympathetic here he’s the only one who’s not going to get a reasonable slice of the Strickland pie he created at least in the short term he arguably beat draus if they rematch sha is going to do is selling he’s bringing his hord of fans UFC are going to make a killing draus is going to get a pay-per-view slice largely boosted by Sea’s Antics while Strickland gets left out in Ni cold some people might not be sympathetic towards this especially since he has a style that is prone to controversial decisions sometimes it almost feels like his goal is to win by Split Decision it almost feels like that’s his objective to confuse the judges he leaves it too close and that’s why you lose some decisions you are confident in winning that’s why you can inch out wins sometimes and that’s why you inch out losses sometimes because you don’t you don’t Define the the round enough you don’t do enough to make yourself the obvious winner of the round but even if you don’t see Shawn as sympathetic there is a larger discussion about the pay-per-view cut for Fighters Champions get a pay-per-view cut which is great but outside a few notable exceptions people who sell pay-per-views the needle Movers who often carry the bulk of the promotional weight don’t get it cut now Kobe has just come out and attacked strickling you know sea changed his life so he’s kind of hypocritical to be saying this you know now he lives in like a really nice like Mansion style type house who is he to to say this you know Sean’s in the wrong here again and I don’t know why he’s so mad about the UFC that they made him a millionaire too so but one thing Colby has shared in the past is that in the UFC it’s eat what you kill in reality it’s actually not eat what you kill like what is fight promotion it’s basically just sales it’s selling the fight right now Sean Strickland is like an amazing salesman doing great numbers one of the best salesmen in the company but he’s a Salesman getting 0% Commission on his sales because of a razor close decision that could have gone either way and that the president of the company felt he should have won because of that decision the UFC get to aail of all his promotional work his social media following his horde of dieh hard fans and the electricity he brings to fight week because of a [ __ ] coin flip the UFC get all of that for free oh sorry I forgot about the $20,000 fight we incentive that doesn’t quite cover everything Strickland is bringing to the table so like you can see why Shawn is a really interesting guy around whom to have this conversation but ultimately the solution isn’t something to be hashed out online or in a press conference If Shawn is adding as much as he appears to be that’s something for him and his manager to take to the UFC that’s leverage to try to Ren neoti his contract in reality though the UFC are ruthless negotiators Strickland has already tried renegotiating and it doesn’t sound like he enjoyed the experience coming at terms could be made even more difficult by the nature of relations behind the scenes Luke Thomas recently mentioned he heard Dana flat out doesn’t like Sean and then the third part of I have heard from people who uh I would say reasonably good sources that Dana White just does not like Sean Strickland I think that for whatever reason Dana doesn’t like him or maybe sees him as a liability and it’s very easy to imagine Dana doesn’t like a guy who’s characterizing their entry level pay as criminal I mean the UFC don’t like people going after the pay structure so if we’re talking about something like a Whitaker fight very dangerous highlevel opponent if they not willing to compensate him in a way that he feels is fair for everything he’s bringing to the table he really only has one intelligent move you know if you don’t want to pay me well I’m not going to give you the full promotional weight of the social media Juggernaut that I’ve created for free either give me the Whitaker fight with a massive pay bump or I’ll just wait for the title shot that I absolutely deserve that I’ve already earned so I can get back to a position where I will be compensated for the promotional work that I put in in and I think that’s absolutely Fair Shan Strickland may never be Champion again the top of the division is Whitaker Strickland Israel and draus excellent top four very tough to get to the top of that Heap that might never happen so the time for Strickland to get compensated is now for him to not at least be trying to play hard ball in his position would be completely Reckless and extremely stupid so as much as I would love to see the Whitaker fight for Sean’s sake I’m glad to see him take a hard line [Music]