Jorge Masvidal Tells the UFC to Pay Sean Strickland More
Jorge Masvidal says the UFC should pay Sean Strickland enough that a Jake Paul boxing match is not even a conversation.
The former welterweight contender made the case on Home of Fight after Strickland’s late-night posts about being done with MMA and open to boxing. Masvidal said the complaints hurt to hear, because the promotion is in a position to close the gap.
“You know, like, goodness, we’re at a good place,” Masvidal said. “We’re getting one point three billion dollars a year.”
That figure is his, not a number the UFC has put on the Paramount deal. He used it to ask the obvious question. “Why can’t you not pay this guy?”
Masvidal did not call Strickland the biggest star in the company. He still put him near the top. “He’s, he’s not maybe the biggest star in the company, but he’s top three.”
The case he made was about the following, not the ranking. “You know, he’s, like Sean has talked about everywhere,” Masvidal said. “But I don’t think not even those guys have the cult like following that Shawn has.”
He kept going. “Shawn has people, they ride for Shawn, you know? And it’s a lot of them.”
“And it’s, and it’s like he’s, he’s got his own little cult. So he, he to me is a force in the sport.”
Strickland is 31-7 and the middleweight champion again, a title he won back from Khamzat Chimaev by split decision at UFC 328 on May 9. The defense that was supposed to follow, a rematch with Nassourdine Imavov, never got signed.
Masvidal treated that as a failure of the purse, not a joke. “Super controversial guy, super fun to watch, happens to be the current world champion. Like, why is he complaining about pay?”
Reports put the UFC offer near $400,000 to show and $400,000 to win. Imavov then offered $500,000 of his own money if Strickland beats him in January and told the promotion to strip the belt if the champion still said no. UFC 335 on December 12 was announced without that fight.
Strickland answered in public. He wrote that unless things change he is “kinda over it,” and that he has not decided whether to “nuke” his contract, because putting hands on Jake Paul “sounds way better than the UFC right now.”
He landed on the fighter’s side of it. “I’m always going to be for the fighter’s side and pay these guys more. UFC, like just pay these guys more.”
The Paul option is the part he does not want available. “I don’t want to hear this guy complain. Like it shouldn’t even be an option for him to go box freaking Jake f***ing Paul.”
Masvidal said the money should already be high enough to end the comparison.
“It shouldn’t be because he’s making so much money in the UFC that he’s like, bro, I’m not going to f**ing take a pay cut for this sht.”
He closed on a hope, not a prediction. “You know, I, I, I would hope that they end up taking care of him and give him what he needs.”
Nothing in the interview books the Imavov fight or a Paul bout. Strickland is still champion, still unsigned for a defense, and still talking about boxing while Masvidal argues the UFC’s new media money should make that talk unnecessary.
