There’s been a lot of talk about fighter pay lately. 2026 MMA news has been dominated by fights that haven’t happened and fighters that refuse to fight because the UFC isn’t willing to pay them a little more. Now former bantamweight champion and UFC star Sean O’Malley is coming out and … not complaining, really, but laying out both sides of the fighter pay equation.
O’Malley was on the MMA Guru podcast to explain why he should get the next 135 pound title shot against Petr Yan, who just defeated Merab
Dvalishvili at UFC 333. O’Malley wants his belt back for obvious reasons, and one of those reasons is the champ gets paid better than everyone else … but still not as much as a champion boxer or any half decent football or baseball player.
“These young fighters coming up, we know, or supposedly, like, you’re not gonna make that much money, so don’t f–king go try to be in the UFC,” O’Malley said. “If your goal is to be in the UFC and become the richest person, it’s not gonna happen. So just don’t even try to become a professional fighter if you’re gonna end up complaining about money, is one way to look at it.”
“It’s like, hey, all these guys coming up know that fighter pay isn’t that great. Whatever. So if you’re still gonna pursue it and you still wanna get there, don’t f–king complain too much. It does suck when you’re in a position where you feel like you’re worth more, but that’s just what it is.”
MMA Guru noted that O’Malley’s training partner Tommy McMillen made life changing money in the UFC after just a few impressive fights. But a $100,000 bonus stops looking so good when you’re one of the top stars at the multi-billion dollar company getting underpaid by millions.
“The UFC completely changed my life,” O’Malley said. “I would not be where I’m at, I would never have made this much money doing something else. I’m forever grateful for the UFC. I’ll always be grateful for the UFC in that sense.”
“But there comes a point where it’s like, God, do I wanna fight? I do wanna fight, and this is the next guy, but I don’t wanna fight for that amount of money. It’s like, f–k it. There comes a time where that’s an issue. But, again, we still gotta be grateful that the UFC gave us this platform because where else are we gonna fight?”
