Jake Paul fears UFC star Paddy Pimblett may have made just £1,500 for his incredible win at The O2 arena earlier this month.
Pimblett did earn a £38,000 bonus for his stunning first round submission of Rodrigo Vargas, but was paid a base purse of just over £9,000 to fight with a further £9,000 to win. And assuming he hadn't been given the bonus, Paul believes that Pimblett may have left with as little as $2,000, or around £1,500 for his star-making performance.
The YouTuber-turned-boxer has been engaged in a bitter rivalry with UFC boss Dana White over his stance on fighter pay. And he was stunned to learn that a massive name like Pimblett, who attracted a large portion of the record-breaking crowd to the London venue, was earning such a low guarantee.
"I'm passionate about fighter pay all across the board because I see how fighters are mistreated, yes in boxing but especially in the UFC," Paul said during an appearance on The Journey podcast.
"They run such a greedy organisation where people like Paddy Pimblett are getting paid $24,000 (£18,000) and he's the main attraction for the whole entire show which is making $5-10million. So they're just taking everything from these fighters who can barely afford to pay coaches.
"You look at $24,000 minus taxes, minus rent for three months of training camp, food, nutrition, this kid is left with probably $2-4,000, who knows?"
Pimblett's UFC salary is subsidised by a lucrative deal with Barstool Sports to work as a brand ambassador and content creator. He is paid an annual salary that is said to be over $1million, which was agreed upon after his star-making UFC debut in Las Vegas last September.
And promoter Eddie Hearn, with whom Paul will be working to co-promote next month's Katie Taylor vs Amanda Serrano fight, has defended the UFC, saying that there are a number of benefits to fighters being involved with the promotion.
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"It's a different kind of structure in the UFC and there are a lot of benefits of being with the UFC. Particularly when you talk about training facilities and you talk about sponsorships as well and stuff like that," Hearn told Boxing King Media.
"I don't know enough about the business - what I can tell you is being up close and personal to it, every one of those fighters who won, got out of the octagon, ran around and cuddled Dana White."
Paul has been engaged in a long-running rivalry with White, which included releasing a diss track earlier this year which garnered over five million streams on social media. And he insists that the feud is legitimate, adding: "It's real, it's very very real and for me it's about UFC fighters getting treated better and that's really what it boils down to."
