Shawn Strickland and Mike Perry recently had a dispute over the pay of fighters in the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship.
Strickland was asked about the possibility of a career with BKFC ahead of his June 1 bout against Paulo Costa at UFC 302. Strickland completely shot down the idea.
“Damn, how much can I fight with my bare hands? They pay me zero money… They pay these guys rock bottom money… I break their hands, I break their eye sockets and I make a couple thousand dollars,” Strickland said.
Perry, who lost $50,000 betting against Costa, later criticized the former UFC middleweight champion: “I don’t think Strickland should be talking about fighters’ pay, because his pay at UFC is probably so much less than what “Platinum” earned at BKFC.”
“Shawn Strickland is fighting for pesos at the UFC and I’m getting paid here,” Perry said on the Overdogs podcast. “He’s always posting videos on Instagram where he’s walking out his garage or his front porch and there’s somebody standing in his driveway, and they’re offering to fight him bareback for free. What are you talking about, Shawn?”
Perry signed with BKFC after parting ways with UFC after a two-fight slump in 2021. Since then, he has won five straight fights and risen to become the promotion’s biggest star. But Strickland points out that while Perry may be making more than most UFC fighters, other fighters at BKFC are not. Strickland, who has never been shy about questioning UFC fighters’ pay, urged Perry to speak up for the well-being of all fighters.
“UFC’s salary is total garbage (laughs) [They’re] “It should be a crime to sign fighters at 10/10… yet the majority of BKFC fighters get paid far less than that… As a UFC fighter I advocate for better pay for myself and all fighters… you should do the same for your fighters,” Strickland said in an Instagram post.
“I speak as a rags-to-riches guy, and once you have capital, it just snowballs. These elites will probably never take a paycheck again and could easily make half a million a year, but they still have millions of dollars piling up in their bank accounts that they will never need or spend. In every industry.”
Sean Strickland hits back at Mike Perry, calling for higher pay for fighters:
“UFC’s pay is completely rock bottom. It’s criminal that they’re signing fighters for $10,000/$10,000… but the vast majority of BKFC fighters are paid way less than that…”
As a UFC fighter I advocate… pic.twitter.com/TxATq4gUHM
— Championship Round (@ChampRDS)
June 11, 2024
The California State Athletic Commission recently announced the pay for fighters at BKFC Knucklemania IV on April 28 in Los Angeles and UFC 298 on February 17 in Anaheim. Mike Perry earned $600,000 for his first-round knockout of Thiago Alves, while Alves earned $200,000. Meanwhile, Alexander Volkanovski earned $750,000 for his featherweight title bout against Ilia Topuria in the UFC 298 main event, while Topuria earned $350,000. But at the bottom of the card, a stark contrast is revealed, with Brendon Rebeiro earning $10,000 at UFC and Sydney Smith earning $500 at BKFC.
