The past couple of years were not exactly good for Stipe Miocic in terms of monetary compensation as the UFC heavyweight champion. His grievances with the company at the time grew worse after finding out that Alistair Overeem earned $200,000 more than he did during their UFC 203 fight in September 2016, despite winning via first-round knockout and successfully defending his title for the first time.
Things seemed to have taken a 180-degree turn for the 35-year-old Cleveland native. During a pre-fight media scrum in Los Angeles on Monday, Miocic revealed that he has mended his once strained relationship with UFC president Dana White, while also disclosing that his UFC 226 payday is “100 percent” the biggest payday of his career.
“Dana and I, we talked that stuff out and it worked out great,” Miocic said (via MMA Fighting).
Miocic says he also understands the transition phase that the company has gone through from when it was purchased by WME-IMG in July 2016, which may have affected how fighters were being compensated.
“A lot has changed. I think it had a lot to do with the change in the company too, they were stuck in their transition,” Miocic said. “I’m just, I was stuck when they sold the company, they were looking for what’s good for them, but I understand that.”
“They spent a lot of money, they spent four billion dollars it’s not like ‘ahh, sure guys.’ it’s a little bit different than that. They made it right and it was all good.”
Miocic will be defending his title for the fourth straight time this weekend at UFC 226 in Las Vegas in a super-fight against light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier.
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