Sonnen has come to the defence of White over fighters complaining about a lack of sufficient pay after a recent dispute with heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou.

In a recent video taken from his Youtube channel, Sonnen expressed how White was the first to champion for bigger purses for fighters.

He added; “The person who believes fighters were exploited and fighters weren’t paid enough is Dana. And they’re now trying to use the same argument that he brought forward and act as though he is doing something wrong.

“When I first fought in the UFC, the year was 2005. I was paid $2,000 to show and $2,000 to win. I could not believe how much money I had in my pocket when I got that check. $2,000 in 2005.”

Sonnen went on to say that the overall pay for fighters in today’s landscape has significantly risen since then. With payouts rising from $2000 to $12,000

With the ”bad guy” offering anyone a reward who can name one or more companies besides the UFC who has done the same thing.

”The minimum pay right now is $12,000. The minimum now is six times as much. I will give two tickets to anybody who shows me any company in the world that is paying six times (more) right now than what it paid 15 years ago.”

Is… is Jake Paul the good guyhttps://t.co/XWMpIwPOCR

— Pundit Arena (@PunditArena) July 1, 2021

The topic of fighter pay has been long discussed in MMA, and especially in the UFC. With former Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones in the spotlight.

After vacating his Lightweight strap and moving up to Heavyweight, Jones expressed he should be compensated more if he were to challenge UFC Heavyweight Champion Francis Ngannou.

Jones was immediately shot down by White, who claimed Jones wanted Deontay Wilder money for moving up a weight class.

White’s Response to Jones

During a media scrum in May, White responded to Jones’s claims, claiming he wanted over £30 million, and that £8-10 million was simply too low.

 “We have text messages from Jon Jones. It’s not like I can’t prove what I’m saying is true. We have text messages from him but I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to put his text messages out in the press”.

“If Jon Jones wants to sit down and take a lie detector test about who’s lying and who’s not, we can do that, too”.

The post Chael Sonnen Defends Dana White Over Fighter Pay appeared first on SportsNewsIreland.

Speaking to ESPN’s First Take show President of UFC, Dana White said, “So, everybody has been dying to find out where Fight Island is, so today I’m here to announce that Fight Island is on Yaz Island in Abu Dhabi. Just like I said about Florida, how the commission and the government worked with us there to pull off this fight”. He said the guys in Abu Dhabi have been amazing partners in everything.

White revealed the line-up of fights for night on July 11th. In the UFC Welterweight Championship Kamaru Usman will defend his title against Gilbert Burns. This will be the main event on the card. Alexander Volkanovski who is the current featherweight champions will fight Max Holloway in a 2019 rematch in the co main event. Jose Aldo and Peter Yan will be in the Octagon to fight for the Bantamweight title.

A woman strawweight rematch will also take place. It will be between two former champions Rose Namajunas and Jessica Andrade. Paige VanZant and Amanda Ribas will also square off in a 115 pound bout. White said, “We’re going UFC 251, Saturday, July 11, in Abu Dhabi. And we literally just got (Gilbert) Burns vs. (Kamaru) Usman done. So that card: Usman vs. Burns, (Alexander) Volkanovski vs. (Max) Holloway, Peter Yan vs. (Jose) Aldo, Jessica Andrade vs. Rose Namajunas, and (Amanda) Ribas vs. (Paige) VanZant,” White declared.

UFC 251 on Fight Island (Yaz Island, Abu Dhabi, July 11th)

• UFC Welterweight Championship: Kamaru Usman (c) vs. Gilbert Burns
• UFC Featherweight Championship: Alexander Volkanovski (c) vs. Max Holloway
• UFC Bantamweight Championship: Peter Yan vs. Jose Aldo
• Jessica Andrade vs. Rose Namajunas
• Amanda Ribas vs. Paige VanZant

The post UFC Fight Island to take place in Abu Dhabi appeared first on SportsNewsIreland.