First Henry Cejudo retired after beating Dominik Cruz, only to show up on All Elite Wrestling with Mike Tyson shortly after. Then Jon Jones got into a war of words on Twitter with Dana White. Now Jorge Masvidal has jumped on board, taking to Twitter to say his piece. All three have a common ground too… money.
Cejudo quit while on top after negotiations on a new contract with Dana White and UFC stalled. Cejudo felt he should be getting paid more than what was on offer and decided to walk, straight into startup wrestling promotion AEW with Mike Tyson and a number of other former fighters including Rashad Evans and Vitor Belfort.
Last week Jon Jones went on Twitter and blasted his boss after Dana claimed Jones didn’t want to take part in a super fight with the intimidating Francis Ngannou. Jones saw it differently, claiming the only reason the fight isn’t happening was because Dana wouldn’t cough up the money even going as far as to ask for his release.
I don’t even make half of half of what Diante Wilder makes. If my reputation causes you to undervalue me this much. Just go ahead and release me from my @Ufc contract altogether. I’m sure some promoter somewhere will be more than happy to pick me up.
— BONY (@JonnyBones) May 29, 2020
Then yesterday Jorge Masvidal stepped onto twitter to blast the boss
Why make me fight for half of what I made on my last fight cause the other dude can’t draw?
— Jorge Masvidal (@GamebredFighter) June 5, 2020
Dana responded at a press conference that these guys were independent contractors and if they don’t want to fight for whatever reason they don’t have to. This riled Masvidal up as he then tweeted
I’m not an independent contractor if I can’t go anywhere else to make a living. Let me go and let me see if I’m worth it @espn #supernecessary
— Jorge Masvidal (@GamebredFighter) June 5, 2020
A dig at the fact that while deemed independent contractors, he cannot go fight for One Championship or Bellator without being in breach of his contract with UFC. And that is one problem Cejudo doesn’t have right now. He can show up to AEW on a Wednesday night and fight for One Championship on a Saturday effectively doubling his money.
Former UFC fighter DeMarques Johnson tweeted the following which Masvidal later retweeted showing the comparative difference in pay between UFC and some other major sports
Let's say the UFC is worth 4.2b they pay fighters 16% of that. The other 84% 3.5billion goes to the UFC. @nfl is 47-53 split @nba is 50 50@nhl is 50-50
UFC 16-84I don't know shit, but one of these things is not like the other
— DaMarques Johnson (@DaMarques_UFC) June 5, 2020
Now I don’t know what’s going on in Dana’s head (as I’ve said in the past I’m a casual fan) but these three fighters are some of the best, most entertaining fighters in the game. Letting them walk doesn’t bring eyes to your product, it takes them away.
