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Former UFC Interim Lightweight Champion Justin Gaethje faces Paddy Pimblett for the vacant UFC Interim Lightweight Championship in the main event of UFC 324.
Gaethje claims that his pay for the fight, despite the UFC’s new broadcasting deal with Paramount+, has not increased at all.
"Oh, man, to have 14 bonuses and not have it equal up to $1 million, it's not right," Gaethje said during the UFC 324 Media Day (transcript via Danny Segura and Ken Hathaway of MMA Junkie). "It should be a lot more than that. I should've had opportunities to do smarter things with my money, but I haven't. To this day, I hear Daniel Cormier saying everybody is going to get paid more on this card. I'm not getting paid one dollar more than if this deal hadn't happened."
There has been talk of pay increase and fight bonus increase for the fighters, but nothing has been made official at this time.
UFC CEO Dana White claims that Gaethje was offered more money, but the fighter has been ignoring his calls.
"We completely have it dialed in," White said on The Pat McAfee Show (transcript via Nolan King and Mike Bohn of MMA Junkie). "We have really smart kids who can get it down within single digits on how close it would be to pay (fighters) like it was a pay-per-view. And Gaethje, without getting into all that stuff, Gaethje was offered more money, and Gaethje never responded. We're good."
UFC 324 takes place on Saturday, January 24 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada with Justin Gaethje and Paddy Pimblett headlining. PWInsiderXtra is providing live coverage of the event, which streams live on Paramount+.
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