Conor Benn will reportedly pocket $15 million when he enters the ring to compete under the Zuffa Boxing banner versus Regis Prograis on April 26. And even if that amount “is not TKO going out of pocket,” according to UFC owners TKO Group Holdings, several UFC fighters have reacted in disbelief to that news.
Max Holloway, who holds the “BMF” title and headlines this Saturday’s UFC 326 card in Las Vegas, said it was “crazy” to hear that number. “Blessed” faces off with former lightweight champion Charles Oliveira at T-Mobile Arena and most likely won’t get paid anywhere close to that deal despite a legendary career inside the octagon. He said fighters should be smart and “stick their neck out” for better pay under the new Paramount+ deal, a $7.7 billion contract to air UFC events on the streaming platform for the next seven years.
Speaking with former UFC flyweight king Demetrious Johnson on his Youtube channel, Holloway said it’s on the fighters to “start getting together” for larger checks instead of treating fellow athletes as competition in every sense of the business.
“I love Derrick Lewis, man,” Holloway said. “But when Jon Jones said, ‘Oh, I’ll fight Francis [Ngannou].’ I think he’s like, ‘Give me $10 million’ or whatever it was. And UFC said, ‘Hell no, we’re not paying you that.’ Derrick Lewis, I believe, was ranked at the time and he said, ‘What? I wouldn’t do this for 10. Give me a mil. I’ll fight Francis now.’ We cannot be doing that, brother. You needed to almost stand in Jon’s corner. ‘Yeah, Jon, you deserve 10. Go get that 10.’ Because guess what? If you’re fighting for 10 and it looks like your base pay probably comes up to you.”
The UFC was a lot different when Holloway first entered the promotion back in 2012, battling Dustin Poirier for a disclosed purse of $6,000 in the preliminary card of a Nick Diaz vs. Carlos Condit pay-per-view in Las Vegas. Bonuses were raised to $100,000 after the Paramount+ deal kicked off in 2026, and every finish is now rewarded with an extra $25,000 check, but Holloway urges the new generation of athletes to “know your worth.”
“The main thing I would say, know your worth, know what it is,” Holloway said. “It’s going to suck. At the end of the day, hold your ground. You should know what your worth is. There’s this thing that I like to tell myself in any type of business, not only fighting anything, even in regular job people: if you’re going to present something and I tell you, ‘Oh, I want this much.’ And your answer to me is like, ‘Oh, perfect. Can do.’ You low bought the shit out of yourself [laughs]. The answer that you want is to be like, ‘F you. Why are you asking for this much?’
“Of course there is ridiculous amount that you might say, but the correct answer that you want when you tell somebody you want something, be like, ‘F you. You don’t deserve it. Blah, blah, blah.’ That’s the answer you want. If I told you give me this and you agreed with me like, ‘Holy shit, I’m an idiot. I done played my damn self.’”
Johnson echoed his sentiment, recalling a conversation he had with fellow retired legend Georges St-Pierre regarding the current landscape of the MMA business.
“I talked to ‘GSP’ and he said one of the things that he shakes his head every so often,” Johnson said. “He doesn’t follow the sport like he used to, but he sees big headlines that come up and he says, fighters are always putting other fighters down. Like you said, you need to come together, you need to band together.”
