A UFC article from CryptoCoinOpps was disected by several cryptocurrency Youtubers last week. This includes the hosts including ‘Crypto King‘ and ‘Oscar Ramos‘.
Unfortunately, it appears both influencers failed to read the article. The previous story was about how Crypto.com is failing to keep the agreement of paying UFC fighters bonuses in bitcoin. A sponsorship that was publicly promised to CRO enthusiasts.
Furthermore, these YouTube hosts claimed the story was pointlessly “FUDing” the exchange. The Youtubers implied that the factual news article was to claim that the exchange is in some sort of imminent collapse.
This was wrong. News is simply a detailed, nonpartisan writing providing readers with details on an event.
Indeed, Crypto.com is one of the largest and most popular cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. The company is worth billions of dollars.
Also, Crypto.com not paying the pre-agreed amount of $60,000 in Bitcoin to pay-per-view UFC fighters is simply a fact. An undeniable truth relevant to at least 3 of the latest UFC events.
The CEO of the exchange will not deny it.
For 3 Months UFC Fighters Not Paid A Crypto.com BTC Bonus
After UFC 278, Crypto.com announced a “retooling” of the Crypto.com “Fan Bonus of the Night”. For the past three months, the bonus was not reintroduced, and there’s no news about it coming back.
In his video, Oscar Ramos claims that CryptoCoinOpps did not provide sources for allegations made against the exchange. Corroborating to that narrative, “Crypto King” claimed that the article is “not factual in any way”.
Even the exchange’s CEO Kris Marszalek tweeted a response to MrWhale, who greed with us. The CEO claimed something was “false,” but can only be referring to ‘liquidity issues’ at best. And that was not the headline of CCO.
The YouTubers who made claims to shill more CRO tokens can simply verify via the UFC’s website.
Other UFC Fighter Pay Issues
The Ultimate Fighting Championship is the world’s leading organization in the sport. In 2016, Zuffa sold the company to WME-IMG for a whopping $4 billion dollars.
Five years later, the Crypto.com partnership set the milestone for the highest-paid sponsorship deal in UFC’s history.
The company is expected to make nearly $18 million per year. Meanwhile, not a single dollar of that amount is disclosed to the fighters.
To make things even worse, UFC fighters are among the lowest-paid athletes in top-tier sports leagues.
Former UFC lightweight champion Sean Sherk once corroborated to that statement: “UFC fighters are still the worst-paid athletes on the biggest stage,” he wrote in a Facebook post.
Generally, up-and-coming fighters receive a purse of about $12k to show, and $12k to win in their first couple of fights.
Due to the injury-prone nature of the sport, it is very difficult to see a fighter competing more than a couple of times per year.
This means that on the lower end, it is feasible to consider that many fighters are making less than $50k yearly. Receiving a $30k bonus payment from Crypto.com could very well change the life of one of these athletes for good.
Top Fighters Earn Less Than Athletes of Same Status
The story is similar among the top-tier athletes on the roster. Jon Jones, a former UFC light-heavyweight champion and one of the greatest athletes to ever compete in the sport, averages about 500k pay-per-view sales per appearance in the Octagon.
Meanwhile, Canelo Alvarez, a multiple-time world boxing champion also averages in the same PPV sales range as Jon Jones.
The thing is, while Jon Jones makes a little over $1 million, according to UFC’s disclosed payments, Canelo Alvarez made $40 million for his trilogy fight against Golovkin.
The Crypto.com bonus payment was a well-welcomed addition to a class of athletes who struggle for recognition and fair payment.
