Former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold doesn’t seem to be too pleased with the latest offer the promotion has sent him. So much so, that he even took to social media to speak about it.
“Look, a lot of people are asking ‘when are you going to fight?’ I might have a bout agreement in the mail, but the money is bullshit,” Rockhold said on snapchat (HT: MMA Digest). “When the money is right, I’ll be ready to fight.”
Rockhold, who was featured on the cover of At Large Magazine, recently spoke about receiving big offers doing modeling. He says he isn’t just going to take a small UFC payday and go through the rigors of training and fighting if the money isn’t right.
“I’m a fighter at heart, but I’m here to get paid, so if there’s more potential (in modeling), I’ll take it,” Rockhold said at an appearance with the MMA Hour. “And we’re talking big numbers, so I could laugh and let my body heal and wait for the time’s right to come back and fight when it makes sense.”
“I’m not going to just go out there and put my body on the line when I can get paid that much more in this world.”
“I have a good relationship with the UFC for sure,” Rockhold noted. “It’s business. They’re going to make things to their advantage, try to take advantage of certain things and put you in a place and do what they can. That’s business, that’s how it is. And guess what, I’ve got my own business on the side and I can stand my ground too. I can take some time off.”
While fighters get a new and more lucrative contract after winning the title, in many cases, the pay bump is the opposite once the champion loses the belt.
For instance, T.J. Dillashaw went from having a disclosed purse of $70k to show and $70k to win, to just earning $25k and $25k on his next fight after losing the belt.
Johny Hendricks dropped from $150k to $100k 2 bouts after, even after a small increase from the Matt Brown win. Renan Barao went from $74k to $50k 3 fights later.
This may very well be the case for Rockhold, who earned much more than those other former champs, and is currently unhappy with the latest offer.
The 31-year-old took home a disclosed amount of $250,000 on his last bout against Michael Bisping. As champion at the time, he also likely earned a percentage of the pay-per-view sales, which were estimated to be at 380,000 buys.
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