UFC president Dana White and Nate Diaz are at odds over compensation. Diaz’s disclosed purses for the past several years break down as follows:
•2013 – $45,000
•2014 – $16,000
•2015 – $90,000
•2016 – $5,000,000 est.
White recently offered Diaz a fight with Tony Ferguson for the Interim lightweight championship, but it was declined. Diaz apparently wants points on the pay per view and White is not yet ready to offer that. Were Diaz to defeat Ferguson and become interim champion, then points would be added to the contract, but not before.
White offered his side of the negotiation, in an interview with Kevin Iole for Yahoo Sports. White says the show-win pay offered to Diaz to fight Ferguson was fair.
Whatever his deal is, he’s got a pretty good deal, said White. I mean, listen, at the end of the day, what is Diaz worth without Conor McGregor? I don’t know. The kid isn’t in a position for pay-per-view or any of that type of. But this could put him in a position. If he fought Tony Ferguson, it would be for the interim title.
Obviously, if you held the interim title, you would get a piece of the pay-per-view. Diaz has to put himself in a position to make the pay-per-view money.
White was composed about Diaz’s inactivity.
It doesn’t frustrate me at all,” he said. “Because I’ve learned that you can’t make people fight, man. It’s the same thing when people ask me, ‘What if this guy retires,’ or ‘What if that guy retires?’ This is a business that, your head has to be in this game. You have to want to become a world champion. You have to want to fight. You have to go through everything it takes to get into the cage. It doesn’t frustrate me at all. We’ll keep offering the Diaz brothers fights until one of them says yes or they never fight again.
It doesn’t change my life one way or another. People really like the Diaz brothers. When they get in there, they’re tough and gritty and they mix it up. They’re fun to watch and their interviews are fun, and funny. They’re popular guys. But at the end of the day, people are excited about guys who want to win world titles and they want to find out who the best fighters in the world in each weight class. Those are the things that sell and those are the things that people are interested in.
The reality is, of course, more complex. The best fighter in the sport is Demetrious Johnson, and he is not driving big PPVs. So it’s more than wanting to fight and finding out who the best fighter in the world is. Further, when former welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre was holding out, reportedly not for a larger purse, but simply to bring his sponsors with him into the Octagon, White offered a similar rebuttal – that GSP didn’t really want to fight, and would never want to fight again.
The reality may be simpler – fighters want to get paid more, and if they are in a financial position to hold out, they will.
Plus, how many fighters even have their own wine billboard? One!
