Brendan Schaub wrote on Twitter last week that he made six figures per fight in sponsorship money. UFC president Dana White is not buying it.
White put Schaub on blast this week on Off the Record with Michael Landsberg on TSN in Canada, listing all of Schaub's sponsors in a mocking fashion.
"I'm sure this guy is making over $100,000 a fight," White said sarcastically.
White mentioned Schaub sponsors like Big Rentals Construction Company, KeepItPlayful.com, the Reign Training Center, Box N Burn Gym and Alchemist Management. The last one he said he made sure to add that it was "not a joke": NOHO Hangover.
Schaub was one of the many fighters to take the UFC to task last week for its pay structure under the new uniform deal with Reebok. With the tiered system determined by tenure, Schaub would only make $10,000 per fight from Reebok, which will be the only brand fighters will be able to wear during fights, fight week and any UFC-related events.
Fighters who have between one and five fights will make just $2,500 per fight from Reebok. Six to 10 fights will get fighters $5,000; 11 to 15 fights will earn them $10,000; 16 to 20 goes up to $15,000 and 21 or more nets a fighter $20,000. Champions make $40,000 from Reebok per fight and title challengers come in at $30,000.
Matt Mitrione and Tim Kennedy were also vocal on Twitter about the deal. Multiple managers of high-profile fighters expressed negativity about the payment structure to MMAFighting.com this week as well. Mike Roberts of MMA Inc., who represents the likes of Anthony Pettis, Urijah Faber and Chael Sonnen, said 85 to 90 percent of his fighters will be "hurt" by the deal.
"It's gotta be fixed," Roberts said. "It's gotta be tweaked, because everybody is not worth the same."
White disagrees. He called the Reebok partnership a "great opportunity" for fighters since fighters can keep their sponsors and also get paid every fight from Reebok.
"I just don't know how the deal could be any better," White said. "Could there be a lot more money? Of course there could. Every body wants more money. That's never gonna change no matter what. If this deal with Reebok was $200 million it wouldn't enough money."
Many fighters, though, have lost sponsors because they can no longer wear their logos in the Octagon or at other UFC events. White said the UFC is just following the lead of every other sport.
"All the other sports, whether it's hockey or football, baseball -- whatever -- everybody is allowed to have sponsors outside of the league and not inside," White said. "And these guys are getting all the money from the Reebok deal. All the money goes to them. What better of a deal could you cut for the guys? It's an investment in the future of the sport."
The Reebok deal is reportedly worth $70 million over six years, though neither the apparel company nor the UFC have confirmed those figures. Under the current tiered system, the math does not necessarily add up to the fighters getting every penny of the Reebok funds. The UFC has admitted there will be administrative fees -- the organization opened up an entire new department for this partnership deal.
White was adamant that the UFC was not pulling a fast one on its fighters.
"No, I don't think we're screwing our athletes on the Reebok deal," he said. "Any time we make any type of change here, people go crazy in this sport.
"These guys get a little crazy every time something changes. The same thing happened when we did the video game."
