UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou put his support behind social media influencer Jake Paul and his stance on the promotion needing to fix its fighter pay issue.
Ngannou uploaded a 10-minute interview to his YouTube channel recently and covered extensively his contractual status with the UFC, while also giving his thoughts on the way Paul has gone after UFC President Dana White for the way he compensates his fighters.
“I’m 100 percent with him for what he says,” Ngannou said (h/t MMA Fighting). “Like when he claims [he’s] for fighter health care, I’m 100 percent down with that. When he [claims he’s] for fighter pay increase, I’m 1,000 percent down for that. Fighters are not protected. Fighters are all out there on their own, and nobody looks out for them. Like, I walk around the gym sometimes and you will see a fighter, maybe he just lost a fight, and then he’s training and he’ll get an injury — he will take this injury and just hope that he heals, because he can’t afford the treatment, knowing that he’s doing this for a living. He has a contract and all this stuff. It’s tough to watch [that] stuff and to think that it’s normal. No, it’s not normal. They’re putting their body on the line for something. At least [give them] health care.”
He continued on to talk about how he's felt the promotion has denied him chances to compete at times, in order to leverage him into signing a new deal.
“In the past, when I wasn’t fighting, asking for fights, I had to beg for a fight,” Ngannou said. “And the way that I was treated, I don’t want to deal with this type of situation anymore. It doesn’t matter what is on line. This has to change. I need to feel somebody, I need to get in a contract that holds both [sides] accountable for something, responsible — you have your own part of the contract to fulfill as well. I didn’t feel like it was a fair contract for me.”
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