Islam Makhachev's manager believes UFC champions will earn more after Paramount deal, claims "this pay-per-view thing is a myth"

MMA Manager believes UFC champions will get richer thanks to the new Paramount deal. [Image courtesy: Getty Images]
MMA Manager believes UFC champions will get richer thanks to the new Paramount deal. [Image courtesy: Getty Images]

Islam Makhachev's manager, Ali Abdelaziz, recently shared his two cents on how the UFC's new broadcast deal with Paramount could impact the promotion's champions.

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Earlier this month, the UFC announced signing a massive $7.7 billion broadcast deal with Paramount. With the promotion's deal with ESPN expiring at the end of this year, Paramount+ will be the new home for all fight events starting in 2026. While many were thrilled by this development, some expressed concern about fighter pay decreasing due to the phasing out of the pay-per-view (PPV) model.

UFC champions have traditionally benefited from pay-per-view sales via PPV points. With higher PPV sales came bigger paychecks for champions. However, Abdelaziz believes this model is grossly outdated and would benefit only Conor McGregor. In an interview with Submission Radio, he said:

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"The UFC right now has no PPV star outside Conor McGregor. Nobody can hit a million buys. When you hit a million buys, that's when you start making a lot more money. Now, as a manager, I'm just gonna negotiate flat fees instead of the PPV [points]. This PPV thing is a myth... [Sean] O'Malley, [Ilia] Topuria, none of these guys sell PPVs. PPV is not the way it used to be."
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He continued:

"PPV business is dead. I think the UFC made an unbelievable decision for everyone. Listen, if they are getting double the money, you have to be a fool to think they're not gonna share some of this money."
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Dana White confirms one benefit for UFC champions after bumper Paramount deal

Dana White recently shared some news on how the UFC's new Paramount deal could affect fighters. The UFC CEO made it clear that while the financial aspects of the deal were yet to be ironed out, the fighters were looking at increased bonus pay at a minimum.

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Speaking to the press after the DWCS 77 event (via @MMAJunkie on X), White claimed the increased bonuses would bring "millions" to fighters and said:

"I'm not going to have any comments on that yet because we still have to get together and figure this stuff out. It's August. We have until January to figure all that stuff out. But the low-hanging fruit that's easy to answer? Bonuses are obviously going up. That'll be big. Forget about the tide rising with all the other fighters. Just the number that the bonuses bring to a fighter is millions of dollars."

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Edited by Nishant Zende.
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