Fighter pay is back in the MMA headlines after UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland launched a social media tirade last week.
Strickland appears to be putting his foot down after claiming he rejected an end-of-the-year fight offer to defend his belt against top contender Nassourdine Imavov. The reigning two-time champion has repeatedly shared his frustrations with the UFC’s pay scale in a public and ongoing standoff with the promotion, declaring that he now wants to compete in boxing and won’t return to the UFC until everything is resolved.
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Having been through a similar situation at the highest point of his career as a UFC flyweight champion, MMA legend Demetrious Johnson related to Strickland on Monday’s edition of “The Ariel Helwani Show.”
“I’ve been in his position before. At the end of the day, I fought through my contract as a champion because I wanted more money, and they weren’t going to give me more money,” Johnson told Uncrowned.
“When I’m fighting, I’m f***ing finishing people, I’m creating moves in there, I’m f***ing exciting, whether people don’t believe it or not — and I fought through that contract, so I’ve been there before. So you’ve got to decide, does he want to fight or does he not? It’s a very simple question. Do you want to fight, yes or no? That’s just how I do business.”
According to MMA Junkie’s Mike Bohn, Strickland signed a new six-fight UFC deal before his latest fight — his split-decision title upset over Khamzat Chimaev in May. The win began Strickland’s second championship reign after his first ended at the hands of Dricus du Plessis in January 2024.
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In Johnson’s heyday, he was infamously confronted with the possibility of a champion-vs.-champion clash against bantamweight titleholder T.J. Dillashaw. But to accept the matchup, Johnson wanted a million-dollar payday — something he never received in his 18-fight run with the company.
Though he understands Strickland’s qualms, Johnson questioned where to set the bar in these circumstances.
“There has to come a point in time where, when is enough enough?” Johnson said. “Do I wish I made more money? One thousand percent. But I’m not going to sit here and gripe and moan about it. What’s done is done. Now, I’m moving forward, and I think when you see an athlete sign for a nine-fight deal, if he’s happy with it, I have to be happy with his decision.
“At the end of the day, it’s Sean Strickland’s journey. It’s his career. If he’s not happy with it, I have to respect that he’s unhappy with it. It doesn’t mean I have to agree with him. Even Henry Cejudo said, ‘Man, I was trying to make more money, so I retired.’ Then he f***ing came back, and it didn’t work.”
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Johnson’s situation with the UFC was known publicly around the time the Dillashaw fight was being discussed, but he never took it to social media. That’s where he believes Strickland is missing the mark. None of this needs to be an open battle for the world to see, Johnson said.
“I [prefer] if he just comes out and says, ‘Hey, this is what I want. The UFC’s not going to give it to me, so guys, I will fight out the rest of my contract, then I will move to boxing,'” Johnson said. “Or, ‘I don’t want to do mixed martial arts anymore. I don’t want to do it because the money’s not good.’ Then he just walks away.
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“You are given options. I’m a black-and-white type of person, right? He signed a contract, and he’s got five fights left in his contract. Maybe he didn’t think he was going to win [against Chimaev], and now he’s stuck in a position where he’s not going to make that type of money he thought he was going to make. I don’t know.”
“[But] he doesn’t have to fight,” Johnson added. “He can go, ‘Guys, I don’t want to fight anymore. The money’s s***. I want to make more money in boxing. You’ve seen what Francis [Ngannou] has done, he’s made a s***-ton of money [in boxing]. I want to do the same thing. So you know what, UFC? I’m going to relinquish my belt right now. I do not want to do mixed martial arts, I don’t want to fight anymore. Take the belt, somebody else can fight for this s***ty-ass money. You let me know when I can go box and make some real money.’ Why can’t the conversation be like that publicly?
“That’s how simple the conversation has to be. It doesn’t have to be a long, drawn-out thing. It just can be, this is what I want to do, this is why, here’s my numbers. Here’s my numbers, guys. This is what I’m making right now. Do you guys think it’s [enough]?'”
