Former UFC heavyweight Mark Hunt has told Francis Ngannou to reconsider his future in the promotion after being paid just $600,000 for his first title defence.
The former fighter was never champion during his career with the promotion, and never even challenged for the belt, but on two recorded occasions earned a higher purse than Ngannou's base for taking on Ciryl Gane at UFC 270.
And Hunt has told Ngannou he must take a stand after earning what amounts to less than a slight fraction of his boxing counterparts Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk.
"With Ngannou, of course, he should sit out," Hunt told Submission Radio. "Of course, he should look at his other options.
"To me, the man in MMA getting paid $500,000 to $600,000 is a freaking joke - I just explained to you that I got paid $950,000 six years ago and I never had the belt.
"So, right there goes to show you how much these guys are getting exploited."
Hunt faced Brock Lesnar at UFC 200, losing on the night before the decision was overturned to a No Contest when Lesnar failed a drug test administered by USADA.
For that fight, he made a disclosed base purse of $700,000, which if you account for inflation is over $800,000 by today's standards, considerably more than Ngannou.
Lesnar, one of the biggest stars in the sport's history, was paid over $2million for the marquee match-up, which headlined a massive-selling pay-per-view card that also featured Jose Aldo fighting for the featherweight title and Daniel Cormier vs Anderson Silva.
His next fight, however, against former champion Alistair Overeem in the co-main event of the much smaller Tyron Woodley vs Stephen Thompson rematch at UFC 209, saw him earn $750,000, or over $850,000 today.
And he claims he earned as high as $950,000 to face Justin Willis in a three-round bout that didn't even co-main a fight night in Adelaide for his final fight back in January 2018, although no purse was disclosed.
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While UFC 200 sold over a million units on PPV, 209 was closer to the 300,000 range at a price point of $60, which is $15 less than the price for Ngannou vs Gane.
Numbers are yet to be released, but the bout was marketed heavily and will likely have at least been competitive with that UFC 209 number if not beating it.
"These guys, even before with Stipe, are getting ripped off," Hunt added. "He's getting paid $600,000 I got more than that for my last fight against Willis.
"I never had the belt, and people can make all these excuses about how he doesn't bring in PPVs or whatever else, stop talking if you don't know.
"People just make up s*** out of the air, I don't know where they get it from and if I was Francis I'd stop living on my knees.
"I could be one of those guys, got a few more million with a few more contracts working for this company but I had enough."
