Brendan Schaub claims UFC's $7.7B deal with Paramount is "all bad for the fighters in every facet" 

Brendan Schaub has delivered a blunt assessment of the UFC’s new $7.7 billion media rights deal with Paramount. He warned that the arrangement would do little to improve fighter compensation.

Schaub believes the deal guarantees huge profits for the promotion while leaving athletes in the same financial position. He said the UFC is likely to announce a modest pay bump in the range of five to ten percent, which will satisfy public perception without changing the reality for those competing.

He argued that with a fixed annual payout from the new agreement, the UFC no longer needs to invest in building stars. Schaub claims the days of carefully developing pay-per-view headliners are over because the promotion will receive $1.1 billion annually regardless of who is fighting.

Speaking about the new deal on his YouTube channel, Schaub said:

"I just want you to know how f*cked up the fight business is. They've doubled their profit, and the fighters are staying exactly the same. Does that make sense to anybody out there? This is the fight business. This is what it is... They will f*ck over the fighters at every opportunity...There's no way to challenge the UFC. Those days are gone... The day and age of building stars, all that's gone...They get $1.1 billion regardless."

He added:

"There's no incentives. All that's out the window... None of this is good. It's good for Dana. It's good for TKO. It's good for the shareholders. This is all bad for the fighters in every facet... More exposure doesn’t mean more money...The fighters have no control now."

Check out Brendan Schaub's comments below (24:00):

---

UFC CEO Dana White leaves the door open for occasional PPV cards

While the UFC’s Paramount deal was announced as the end of the pay-per-view era in the United States, Dana White insists the format may still have a role. In an interview with the New York Post, White said a one-off PPV card could be staged during the agreement’s seven-year term.

The UFC president stressed that “anything is possible” and that pay-per-view is not dead. Speaking in an interview with The New York Post, White said:

“Anything is possible. And you could do a one-off pay-per-view. I am going to be on pay-per-view this Saturday. Pay-Per-View is not dead.”