"I learned to not say anything negative" - Sean O'Malley believes he should be paid more and get UFC 'pay-per-view points' for selling his fights well
Sean O'Malley believes he deserves better compensation for actively promoting himself through his own social media platforms.
One of the most popular up-and-comers in the UFC, O'Malley has one of the biggest followings on social media. That being the case, 'Suga' believes he brings more value to selling pay-per-views (PPV) than the average fighter and should be compensated for his efforts.
During an episode of the Timbo Sugar show podcast, O'Malley and his guests touched on the divisive topic of fighter pay. Asked for his thoughts on the issue, O'Malley said:
"It's a good question, I get asked it a lot. I learned to not say anything negative about it. This will probably get click-baited, 'Sean doesn't think the UFC pays him' or some s***' but like a lot of the times, yeah. I'm in a different position where I have two fights left in my contract. The contract I'm on right now, I get paid decent, but in two fights, Dana went on record and said, 'Hey, we need to f***ing pay him' which is rare because Dana never says that. So I think I'm going to get a good contract after these two fights."
Check out Sean O'Malley's comments below:
Sean O'Malley advocates for a slight change in UFC business model
Sean O'Malley has made it clear he isn't fully behind Jake Paul's campaign to have fighter pay raised for every athlete on the UFC roster. Instead, O'Malley thinks the company should give pay-per-view points to those who add value to the event, regardless of whether they're the headliner or not. O'Malley explained:
"That's why I argue that I should be getting f***ing paid more. Because dude, I mean realistically, whoever I'm fighting next, I don't have to sell that fight because I'm not gonna get paid any more if five people watch it or a million people watch it. There should be incentives there... You do if you're in the main event and you get pay-per-view points. Like Izzy [Israel Adesanya] will probably get pay-per-view points because he's the champ. Robert Whittaker probably won't because he's fighting for the belt. But like even in my position, I should get pay-per-view points because I can sell fights."
Presently, getting a share of the pay-per-view sales is reserved for champions and a select few UFC superstars. However, information on how exactly the pay-per-view points are distributed is not well documented.