Former UFC middleweight Uriah Hall has claimed ring girls in the promotion are earning seven times more than some of the fighters.
Hall, 38, fought in the UFC and was one of the hottest prospects following his success on The Ultimate Fighter, but he failed to every reach title contention in his division. 'Prime Time' parted ways with the UFC after his loss to Andre Muniz in July and will make his professional boxing debut against former NFL star Le'Veon Bell. on the undercard of Jake Paul vs Anderson Silva.
The lowest guaranteed purse for most UFC fighters is currently $12,000, but that figure drops to $10,000 for fighters who are signed from the Contender Series. Hall said ring girls in the promotion such as Arianny Celeste are making seven times the amount some fighters are earning, which would imply Celeste earns around $70,000.
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“Listen, the UFC opened my career and extended my career,” Hall said during a media conference call. "I made a great deal and everybody’s contract is different. There’s a lot of things that aren’t fair. I don’t think certain things are fair to athletes and for [Paul] to speak out on that, kudos to him but is anything done yet? How far can we take it? You don’t have to go too much into detail but I know people that are making [$10,000 to show], which is ridiculous because you’re going out there and fighting and you’re putting your brain cells on the line.
“F****ng ring card girls are making $70,000, which is utterly f****ng ridiculous. There’s some s*** that’s just not going down but compared to this it’s OK. You know your worth as you get older in your career, I think, especially when you put a lot on the line for it and some people feel like they deserve more. At one point, I felt like I deserved more and I had to fight for that.”
Paul has been vocal in his efforts to improve UFC fighter pay by challenging White to improve the minimum purse to $50,000 in the promotion, awarding fighters 50 per cent of the promotion's profits and to be issued with long-term healthcare. Hall labelled the UFC as a monopoly and said they are selective in the treatment of their fighters.
“As much as the UFC will give you an opportunity, what I learned from that is it’s like a monopoly,” Hall said. “They pick and choose. It’s like who can we take? For certain people that they don’t want to take, they slowly dismiss them. It’s business at the end of the day. Same thing in this sport. It’s business. “Yeah Jake might say all that s*** but it’s just to stir up Dana [White]. Is he doing it because he really cares or is he doing it because of the media? I don’t f****** know."
