Dana White sounds off on the recent fight purses in Boxing: “All those f**cking guys are overpaid”

UFC President Dana White is sounding off on the recent fight purses in boxing and at the same time defending the league he has built.

Dana White has come under fire for several years now concerning fighter pay in the UFC. High profile fighters have spoken out about fighter pay or lack thereof. Jake Paul, YouTuber and boxer, seems to have turned fighter pay into his personal vendetta, regularly calling out the UFC President.

White, speaking on ‘The Pivot Podcast’ when asked about fighter pay, opened up and had this to say (h/t MMAFIGHTING):

“There’s always gonna be head butting. Do you make enough money? Do you? I want to meet that guy that goes, ‘Oh, I’m good. I make plenty of money. I don’t need another dime.’ You’re never going to meet that guy. It’s never going to happen. Everybody wants more money. And one of the big problems with boxing too, is that all those f****** guys are overpaid, and every time they put on a fight, it’s a going-out-of-business sale. We’re just trying to get as much f****** money as we can from you guys, and then we’re out of here. We’ll see you in three years.”

Continuing Dana White said:

“You can’t build a league like that. You can’t build a sport. You can’t have 750 fighters under contract, making money, feeding their families every year, with that kind of mentality. It doesn’t work. You have to run a business.”

Speaking on incentives like pay-per-view points to boost salaries, White said:

“What we did it we built a business model where, if you’re the champion, you share in the pay-per-view revenue. If you’re the guy headlining the card, or there’s been some special occasions where we know you’re bringing in the money, too, and you’re a big draw so you, too, get to share in the pay-per-view revenue. You eat what you kill.”

Speaking further on $$’s within the UFC, Dana White said:

“The truth is, you get some of these guys that — you can walk in and say, ‘I want $30 million dollars.’ OK, based on what? I do too. Give me $30 million. We all want $30 million, but based on what? And you’re never going to have the guys on the other side worrying about the business of the sport. Because this isn’t a team sport. … In this sport here, it’s about me. ‘I’m the biggest f****** star here. I knocked out 30 people. I did this, I did that. I want as much money as I can get, and I really don’t give a s*** about anybody else, including you, the boss that runs the business. I don’t care about this whole business. It’s about me.”

Adding that what White does is run a real business, saying:

“So you have to maintain some sort of control over that type of stuff to run a real business, because at the end of the day, the reason this business has been this rocket ship of success is because not only have we built a solid (business) where these fighters are all making lots of money and doing well — even guys that are journeymen (are doing well).”

Finally defending his successful venture, he concluded:

“Here’s what I always say: if you don’t like what I’m doing, you don’t like the way I’m doing it, go out and raise some money, I did, and start your own and pay them what ever you want to pay them. We built one of the most successful sports leagues of all time in 20 years. People actually want to invest money into this thing, which makes the sport grow which makes more opportunities for more people, not just the fighters but my employees, and the people that we hire, and it just continues to grow and grow. When you let these people come in and suck all the life and the money out, it doesn’t work. You have to run a real business and you have to have a business that people are interested and want to invest in.”

Do you agree with Dana White or are you of the opinion that UFC fighters are right in asking for more pay?