Stipe Miocic Feels ‘Crapped On’ By UFC
Like many UFC fighters, reigning heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic isn’t too pleased with the promotion regarding fighter pay.
In fact, the Cleveland-native recently described the situation as ‘terrible’ and ‘not fair’:
“[It’s] terrible,” Miocic said on The MMA Hour. “Things definitely need to be changed. Something’s gotta change. It’s not really fair.”
Miocic is coming off of a star-building performance, as he scored a first round knockout over veteran Alistair Overeem last September at UFC 203 in his home of Cleveland. Miocic headlined the event, which sold out the Quicken Loans Arena, but despite his performance, he said that he felt ‘crapped on’ by the UFC:
“I just felt like I was kinda crapped on a little bit,” Miocic said. “I try to do things right and work with them, and they just didn’t give me a great deal. That’s my own fault, but also they knew what they were doing. They took my kindness for weakness.
“They told me it was the best deal they could do, and I said, oh okay, great. And then come to find out, it wasn’t.”
As far as why exactly it wasn’t the best deal, Miocic revealed that he actually made less than Overeem, who was the challenger. According to the Ohio Athletic Commission (Via MMAFighting.com), Miocic received a $600,000 payout, while Overeem was rewarded $800,000.
The champion feels as if this was a ‘slap in the face’ by the UFC:
“Blah, blah, blah, blah. They just made up some excuse, like that’s the contract you signed,” Miocic said.
“You’re making money off me in my hometown, and you’re giving the man that’s a challenger who’s never won the title in the UFC, you’re giving him more money?
“It definitely should change. But the fact that my challenger made more money than me in my last fight was just kind of a slap in the face.”
Miocic currently doesn’t have his next fight booked, but he did say that he is targeting a May return to action. He also seemed optimistic that he would be able to work out his contract issues with the UFC.
What do you make of the champion’s comments?
