Morning Report: Demetrious Johnson reveals shockingly low pay when he was UFC flyweight champion

Demetrious Johnson is broadly thought-about to be one of many best fighters of all time, however throughout his run with the UFC, he actually wasn’t paid prefer it.

After turning into the UFC’s first-ever flyweight champion by beating Joseph Benavidez at UFC 152, Johnson went on to grow to be one of the vital completed fighters in promotional historical past, setting the document for many title defenses (11) and climbing to the highest of the pound-for-pound fighter checklist. However regardless of his many accomplishments and the UFC itself dubbing him the most effective fighter on this planet, the promotion apparently didn’t see match to pay him prefer it.

Throughout a current stay stream on his YouTube channel, prompted by Francis Ngannou’s current departure from the UFC and Dana White’s feedback about it, Johnson went in-depth on his personal exit from the corporate and his pay throughout his reign as UFC flyweight champion.

“Once I fought Dominick Cruz [for the bantamweight title] I used to be beneath contract, I used to be preventing for $14,000 [to show] and $14,000 [to win],” Johnson defined. “I misplaced to Cruz, so I made 14K. Then I used to be about struggle Eddie Wineland and that didn’t undergo so I fought Ian McCall in Australia, and I used to be on the identical contract. Then, I bought a brand new contract after I fought Ian McCall for the second time, I feel I bought bumped as much as $20,000 and $20,000.

“I beat Ian McCall after which I fought Joseph Benavidez. Then I used to be nonetheless on that $20,000 and $20,000, so after I fought John Dodson I made $23,000 and $23,000. Then after I fought John Moraga, I feel it was $23,000 and $23,000 so it most likely went $26,000 and $26,000. Then after I fought Joseph Benavidez, I feel it was $30,000 and $30,000. Then I lastly bought a brand new contract as champion, and I feel it was $125,000 and $50,000, however I couldn’t get pay-per-view factors. That’s the place a champion makes probably the most bang for his or her buck, the pay-per-view factors. As a result of when you get on a card with Conor McGregor and he does 2.1 million buys, you simply do the f****** math. You’re going to make a s***load of cash. I by no means bought the chance to try this.”

Johnson has been fairly open about his points with the UFC, which largely centered round pay and respect. Issues actually started to deteriorate in 2017 when the UFC needed to guide a superfight between Johnson after which bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw, however Johnson felt the promotion was bullying him. And as he defined as soon as once more, the UFC’s unwillingness to open up the checkbook was an enormous a part of the issue.

“So, once they tried to stiff-arm me into preventing T.J. Dillashaw, I used to be like, ‘Yeah, pay me a f****** million {dollars}, and I’ll do it,” Johnson stated. “This can be a tremendous struggle, let’s make some tremendous cash.’ They by no means needed to try this. That’s why I got here out with that, principally pushing again, as a result of when does a champion have leverage? When does a champion get what is because of them? Going again to my seventh or eighth title protection, you’ve bought f****** CM Punk over right here who’s making 500 bones and it’s his second struggle within the UFC. That’s the place that chip on my shoulder got here from.”

Johnson’s points with the promotion quickly got here to an finish as, after dropping his flyweight title to Henry Cejudo in 2018, Johnson was traded to ONE Championship, the place he has remained ever since.

Johnson not too long ago reclaimed the ONE flyweight title with a sensational knockout of Adriano Moraes at ONE on Prime 1, and “Mighty Mouse” will look to do it once more when he faces Moraes in a trilogy bout at ONE Battle Evening 10 on Might 5.

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Thanks for studying and see y’all tomorrow!

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