Jose Aldo Says The UFC’s Wage Makes Him Feel Devalued
The debate about the UFC pay scale has been going on for years now, and doesn’t seem to be coming to a conclusion any time soon. Many mixed martial artists have had issues with the way the UFC pays them, but the answer is often not to their liking. One such fighter who has spoken up recently is none other than featherweight champion Jose Aldo.
‘Scarface’ spoke with ESPN Brazil to discuss how he feels devalued by the promotion, quotes by Bloodyelbow.com:
“I do feel devalued, for sure. Every fighter dreams to reach a level where he will make good money. I have other thoughts nowadays – I’ve been around the world, I have a big wide vision about that. At the same time that they give us our business, they could improve it (payment). We bring millions for the company, I’m a very sellable fighter and everybody wants to watch my fights.”
Aldo is not alone in his opinion, there are countless other fighters calling for unions and better payment for their sacrifice. On the surface of it, I’d have to say I agree. When you see an undercard fighter lose in a three round battle and receive $3000, it really makes you think. But then, things aren’t always as good at the other end of the scale:
“We see a lightweight being paid as much as a beginner. We see a heavyweight non-champion and non-title challenger earning a lot more than us. This situation makes us a little sad but I have to keep battling, we can’t lose our focus.”
“I don’t know, man. We kill ourselves in training, we give the best of us to be there give the people a show, bring records to the UFC. We give everything we have but we don’t get the recognition we deserve. I don’t know what we have to do, if we need to step in there and kill the other guy, I don’t know.”
One point that may be holding Aldo back from getting the bigger pay days is the language barrier. Speaking Brazil’s native tongue of Portuguesa, is Junior missing out because he can’t touch bases with the American fans?
“I don’t know if that is the case. We can feel that it can be bad for guys like me, Renan Barao and Anderson Silva because we can’t speak English fluently. What matters inside there is how we fight, not the language. We have to negotiate. Who takes care of this for me is Dede Pederneiras. I’m there to give what people want to see.”
What do you think, should Aldo be paid more, or should he pick up an English language book? In reality, it goes much further than language barriers when your career is on the line every single time you go to work.
