Ronda Rousey prefers WWE’s pay compared to the UFC: “They’re treated like employees”

Former UFC champion, Ronda Rousey likes how WWE pays their athletes compared to the UFC.

Rousey, who became a WWE star after her successful UFC career, says the WWE treats athletes like employees. The wrestlers are also on salary, which makes planning life a lot easier when compared to fight purses.

What makes WWE even better is the fact that all the wrestlers get physical therapists and doctors. They are constantly being treated for their nagging injuries. In the UFC, there isn’t much health insurance.

“I think it comes with the age of the sport. The older the sport is, the more the athletes can really can start to come together and fight for what they think they deserve as a unified front,” Rousey said on Steve-O’s podcast. “The WWE being older, they definitely have developmental programs where they bring people into live and train by the [Performance Center] in Orlando. They get a salary and they get unlimited access to doctors and physical therapists and all these different things. As an Olympian, I would have been so happy to have something like that.

“UFC originally didn’t have anything like that. They started moving toward like, okay, we’re getting some kind of medical insurance, cause it used to be like, okay, you’re only going to be covered for injuries up to 60 days [after] the fight. Then okay, we’re going to get some kind of medical insurance.”

For Ronda Rousey, she believes the WWE treats their athletes better and you have much better job security. She also says the company does a better job than the UFC of not leaving the fighters high and dry.

“WWE’s even better, because everyone’s on salary. It’s not like you show up for a fight, you get paid, you show up for a fight, you get paid. They’re treated like employees,” Ronda Rousey explained. “They actually are on a salary, it’s much more secure. If people get injured and they can’t perform months and months and months on end, they can actually continue to pay them. [They] pay for their medical treatment and make sure they’re taking care of.

“They do their best not to leave people high and dry. They really invest in talent and spend time building and developing them,” she continued. “As soon as they hire people, they’re on salary right away, which is very, very different from having these lumps of prize money.”

In the end, Ronda Rousey knows the UFC has a long way to go to improve their pay. But, she hopes it will improve over the coming years as the sport gets older.

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This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 4/16/2020.