Over the last year, a lot has been said about how the UFC treats its fighters. Much of this discourse has actually come from the likes of Jake Paul, who has stated time and time again that Dana White does not pay his fighters properly. As a result, Paul can typically be found offering MMA fighters millions of dollars just to fight him, and it has created quite the feud between Jake and Dana. Of course, a lot of this is simply manufactured for some clicks, however, the fact remains that Paul has tainted the way some fans view the UFC as a whole.
Interestingly enough, some UFC fighters completely disagree with the YouTube turned boxing star. While on the Bussin’ With The Boys Podcast, Michael Chandler got to speak at length about his experiences within the UFC and whether or not White is truly bad for the fighters. As Chandler went on to explain, his experiences have always been positive and as it stands, he hasn’t seen anything that would indicate that the UFC is somehow evil.
Mike Stobe/Getty Images
“The UFC gets a bad rap in a lot of ways because they are just the epitome of a phenomenal promotion. They are the #1 worldwide leader in mixed martial arts, not even close. #2 is not even in the same atmosphere,” Chandler said. “So therefore, there’s always people in life and in every vocation, people at the lower rungs want to look up and take shots at the people on the higher rungs instead of trying to climb to a higher rung. So it’s easy for people to sit at their lower rung and shoot shots at the UFC and say they should be doing this, they should be doing that, they should be paying people more, they should be taking care of their fighters more.
“I—and this is just my experience—I have been treated so well by the UFC. I have felt so much love from Dana White, Hunter Campbell, Sean Shelby, Mick Maynard, these guys at the very, very top, the guys who call all the shots and make all the decisions. And this is a huge, huge platform. The UFC is not your small fight promotion like some of these other fight promotions are.”
Of course, Chandler is one of many guys who have been through the UFC ringer, so it can certainly be said that some fighters have a much different view of how the UFC treated them. Regardless, it’s definitely not as bad as Paul has alleged over this past year.
[Via]