Jake Paul has called on Canelo Alvarez and Floyd Mayweather to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to help improve the pay of UFC fighters.
YouTube star Paul has put himself front and centre of a campaign to improve pay and conditions in the world's leading mixed martial arts promotion. He has frequently compared the purses of the best UFC fighters and the best boxers to show the huge disparity.
Paul, who has a professional boxing record of 5-0, has gone as far as to propose a fight with Conor McGregor which could see the social media star donate his purse to the lowest paid fighters on the UFC roster. And in a recent podcast with heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, Paul proposed raising money to form a fighters union.
"I'll call upon the 10 biggest boxers, the 10 highest paid boxers and 10 highest paid people from the UFC,” he said on an episode of The Shop. "Why can you donate $200,000 to the union to help pay these fighters for the six months? Are you that selfish? Floyd Mayweather, Canelo, who makes $50 million a fight.
"Canelo, you can’t donate $200,000 to this union? I’ll donate $500,000. I’ll donate $1million so we can pay the fighters. I’m in for a million. I can raise more than that, but I’m saying the money we put into the union, can help pay the fighters who aren’t getting paid as much in the interim."
Paul's incessant campaigning for improved conditions appears to be breaking through to the UFC fighters with lightweight contender Tony Ferguson among those willing to criticise White. Ferguson will attempt to halt a three-fight losing streak when he takes on Michael Chandler at UFC 274 this weekend.
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And he claimed he had been prevented from taking part in other sports during his time out of the cage. "I think we’re underpaid, personally, to be real," said Ferguson. "I asked Dana to box. He said, 'F**k no.' I’m like, 'Why? I want to go play baseball. I want to go do other pro sports. I’m an athlete. I grew up playing different sports at a high level.'
"I want to go do all these couple things but then I have this guy right here acting like a f**king drug dealer telling me I can’t go and do this sh*t. I want to go make more money for my family."
