Jake Paul has never been shy about calling out combat sports organizations on fighter compensation, and ahead of Saturday’s Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) MMA event on Netflix, he turned up the volume. Appearing on Jorge Masvidal’s Death Row MMA show, Paul made a striking claim: Ronda Rousey is walking away from her comeback fight with a bigger check than UFC lightweight champion Ilia Topuria earns for defending his title.
Here’s what I can say: I know how much Ronda Rousey is making for this event and it’s a lot more than what Ilia Topuria makes for fighting, Paul said.
Rousey headlines MVP MMA 1 this Saturday at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, where she faces Gina Carano in a marquee matchup between two fighters returning from lengthy retirements. The event streams live on Netflix, marking the platform’s first-ever professional MMA card.
Jake Paul says that Ronda Rousey is making a lot more for her main event with Gina Carano than Ilia Topuria is when he fights for the UFC.
He also adds the lowest paid fighter on MVP’s card is still making more than the lowest paid guy in the UFC. pic.twitter.com/D12PP5Du21
The comparison to Topuria is a deliberate one. The undefeated Georgian fighter defends his lightweight title against Justin Gaethje on June 14 at UFC White House, a historic event held in front of President Donald Trump and a slate of high-ranking officials. UFC salaries are rarely disclosed publicly, but it is reasonable to assume Topuria commands serious money for one of the most high-profile bouts in recent memory. Paul is well aware of that, and he is leaning into the comparison anyway.
Beyond the headliner, Paul claimed that no fighter on the Rousey vs. Carano undercard will earn less than $40,000, and that names like Nate Diaz and Francis Ngannou will receive paydays that exceed anything comparable the UFC would have offered them. On the broader undercard, Paul kept specific figures close to the chest but did not hold back on the larger point.
Definitely more than the UFC by a lot, he said.
Masvidal Offers a More Nuanced Take
Not everyone on the show was ready to declare the UFC’s pay structure broken from top to bottom. Masvidal, who retired in 2023 after a loss to Gilbert Burns at UFC 287, pushed back on the idea that entry-level UFC contracts are the core problem.
I like the way you see it, but to be honest with you, in fighting, that 12 and 12, or when I was fighting it was like 4 and 4, that’s still like six times of what you make on the regional side, Masvidal said. It’s good money if you do get there, but where we do need a dramatic change is more like when you’re in the top 10, top 15 already.
His argument is that fighters have to earn their place before the money escalates, and that handing out large contracts too early to unproven talent creates its own problems. The real squeeze, in his view, happens in the mid-tier, where fighters have already proven themselves but have not yet broken through to the upper echelon of UFC pay grades.
“You get caught up in the system sometimes, and then when you’re in that mid-tier, sometimes those guys I feel could get compensated maybe a little better,” he added.
Jake Paul’s Bigger Vision for the Sport
Jake Paul countered Masvidal’s measured take with a structural argument. His position is that better baseline pay does not just benefit individual fighters. It changes who enters the sport in the first place and how seriously they can pursue it.
I think the difference is it would create better talent and better fighters because they wouldn’t have to be working other jobs in between training sessions, Paul said. So that’s the argument back there. It would actually grow the sport in the long run if these people making the minimum pay didn’t have to go be a teacher or a janitor or work for UPS.
The logic is straightforward: full-time training produces better athletes, and better athletes produce a better product for everyone, including promoters and fans.
What Comes Next for Masvidal
While the conversation centered on MVP and fighter pay, Masvidal’s own future came up. The 41-year-old Miami native remains under contract with the UFC but hinted that something significant is in the works.
“We’re going to say the news, I don’t know when, but we’ve got some things we’ve been working on cooking. We’ve just got to wait for some people to sign contracts, but I think we’ve got something big already pretty much locked down,” he said. “Once this individual signs, I think they’ll let everybody know.”
He and Jake Paul also joked about the possibility of Masvidal eventually working with MVP, though nothing concrete is on the table while he remains tied to the UFC.
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