Dana White attempted to quell some of the concerns regarding fighter pay following the UFC's groundbreaking deal with Paramount.
On Monday, it was announced that starting in 2026, Ultimate Fighting Championship events will be exclusive to Paramount+ after the streamer plunked down a whopping $7.7 billion dollars for seven years. Perhaps the most exciting bit of news was the reveal that the UFC's premium numbered events typically reserved for pay-per-view would be included in the deal, meaning fight fans will no longer have to shell out $80 per month on top of a subscription fee.
However, the deal did leave pundits with one question -- how will this effect fighter pay? Specifically, what happens to the hundreds of thousands of dollars that UFC champions and top stars earn annually via PPV points?
The fighters are going to get tons of promotion, you know, built by all these different unbelievable networks that these guys own," White said following Tuesday's new episode of DWCS. "And, you know, they're aggressive, smart guys that that are going to build a big media company.
"It's not massive restructuring. You know, we got a bunch of smart kids over there that work in the accounting department to figure out how to make all this stuff work. But it's so good for the fighters and what I love about being with one company that made such a big investment in us is they're all in with us.
White confirms fighter bonuses will be 'going up' with new Paramount partnership
While White was light on the specifics, he did confirm that fighter bonuses would see a significant increase starting next year.
Bonuses are obviously going up," White continued. "So that'll be big. And just forget about the tide rising with all the other fighters. I mean, just the number that the bonuses bring to a fighter is millions of dollars.
