Colby Covington Defends UFC Fighter Pay Against Sean Strickland’s Criticism

Colby Covington has slammed Sean Strickland for criticizing the Ultimate Fighting Championship ’s fighter pay.

Strickland recently engaged in a back-and-forth with Mike Perry over fighter pay in the BKFC. When Perry responded by calling out the UFC’s fighter pay, Strickland admitted that both promotions needed to better their fighter salaries.

However, Covington disagrees with Strickland. Covington noted that while the UFC typically pays $10,000 + $10,000 to show and win to entry-level fighters, Strickland is probably drawing close to $1 million per fight. “Chaos” believes it is hypocritical of the former middleweight champ to criticize UFC fighter pay when he has built a comfortable life for himself with that.

“My thoughts are, Sean changed his life, so he’s kind of hypocritical to be saying this,” Covington said on the SOSCAST with Adam Sosnick. “Now he lives in like a really nice mansion-style type house, you know, has great cars, and has money in the bank. So who is he to say this? He’s literally being a hypocrite too, like, he’s talking about the guys that just started in UFC. He’s talking about the $10,000/$10,000 pay. Yeah, that’s when you get your first fight in UFC. Let’s talk about what he’s making now. He’s making a guaranteed at least $500,000 to $1.5 million in that range per fight.”

Covington further went on to defend the UFC’s base salary for newcomers. The former UFC interim welterweight champ argued that a fighter shouldn’t be expecting massive paydays from the promotion while starting out, especially without having made any business for them first. Covington ended by hitting below the belt, saying Strickland should be grateful for a “nice” home in the UFC after his abusive childhood.

“As a first-time fighter in the UFC, you haven’t made the UFC any business, you haven’t done anything for the company,” Covington said. “So, why do you think you deserve to get handouts and get paid? If you go 0-2 on your first contract, you don’t win any fights, how should you ever deserve to get paid or get healthcare? You did nothing for the company, you added no value, and you made the company no money. So, Sean’s in the wrong here again. I don’t know why he’s so mad about the UFC, they made him a million or two. So, he got molested as a kid by his dad allegedly, so why is he talking bad about the UFC? He’s from a broken home, now he is in a f—ing home.”