Ronda Rousey reveals minimum fighter pay in MVP
Fighter pay in mixed marital arts has been a hot button topic for years. While it has increased, it's still not where a lot of people would like, including former UFC women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey . Obviously, the biggest stars garner the biggest paydays, but the debuting fighter's compensation makes it difficult for the aspiring athlete to be a full-time fighter.
Rousey returns to the cage in May in the main event of the Netflix and Most Valuable Promotion's first MMA event and she revealed the minimum pay for fighters in the Jake Paul and Nakisa Bidarian owned fight promotion. "I think it's really important to raise the ceiling but also that we raise the floor," Rousey said during the Rousey vs. Carano NYC Press Conference .
"One thing I'm really proud of in this fight is the absolute minimum that anybody will walk away with, even if they don't have a big, long record, even if they lose is $40,000. And if you fight three times in a year, that's much more than a living wage and that's something the UFC can not say. " "I hope that after this event we can keep raising that ceiling higher and higher and higher until it is on par with the highest level boxers because that is really where the Holy Grail for us is.
And this is just the beginning. " The event takes place on May 16, at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California. Rousey, 39, last fought in December 2016.
Carano, 43, hasn’t fought since August 2009, but they're proving they can still move the needle.