Paige VanZant has added her name to the list of fighters who agree with Jake Paul in his argument for improved UFC fighter pay.
The former flyweight contender is one of the best known names to come out of the UFC, but she claims that she never made more for a fight than her monthly earnings from her subscription site PaigeFanZant.com. And despite not mentioning Paul directly, her recent takes on fighter pay seem to mirror his pretty closely.
She told MMAFighting that she will never fight for the promotion again due to how poorly they pay competitors. VanZant left in 2020 to move to Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship, where she has been paid handsomely to headline two pay-per-view events, losing narrowly both times to Britain Hart and Rachael Ostovich.
Asked if she would ever consider fighting in the UFC again, VanZant responded “Of course, I love the UFC. I love the organisation. There’s a reason they are as successful as they are, there’s a reason they were able to get to this level. They have a well-oiled machine and they’re very, very good at it.
“But I know in my heart that I will never fight for them again, just because they don’t pay enough. I don’t see the benefit of going back to the UFC. Right now, I’m fortunate enough, I built myself up to a specific place and I can take that and use it wherever I go.”
It echoes the sentiments of Paul, who has argued that the minimum payout for fighters which is currently a measly $12,000 or around £9,000, needs to be increased to $50,000, and says that the revenue split with fighters should be closer to 50 per cent than the 20-25 per cent it currently is.
She and husband Austin Vanderford, one of the top middleweights in Bellator, now seem to be in a situation where they are set for life financially, and when they decide to have children, she believes they will also live a comfortable life. “I could retire tomorrow and be financially free," she explained. "And my kids would be pretty close to being financially free."
VanZant was a high-level fighter during her UFC peak, but was better known outside of the octagon as one of the bigger celebrities to emerge from the sport. She competed on Dancing With The Stars and made herself a star despite losing some of her bigger match-ups.
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And after her contract was up, she was given a lot of opportunities outside of the promotion, saying: “I’m fortunate enough, I did build my name up - I know how hard I worked in the UFC and I know how much dedication I had.
"I did all the appearances nobody else wanted to do. I traveled the world. Every weekend, I was in a different state doing appearances. I was fortunate enough, I did have that grind mentality to build my name up. I did social media, ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ really did what I could to build myself as a business and as a brand.
“So then when my contract ended with the UFC, I was able to go out there and be fortunate enough to sign with BKFC. They offered me a great contract. It opened the doors to all these other things that I wasn’t really able to do when I was with the UFC.”
