UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic isn't happy with the terms of his contract.
The baddest dude on the planet was one of 2016's fighters of the year, scoring successive knockout victories over former champion Andrei Arlovski, Fabricio Werdum for the belt and PRIDE legend Alistair Overeem in his first defence.
It was apparent in his fight against Overeem that the UFC had found a new star. The first world champion from Cleveland headlined a sold out Quicken Loans Arena and received a rapturous reception before, during and after his fight against "The Reem".
While CM Punk's freakshow debut against Mickey Gall drew a lot of eyes, Miocic's contribution to the gate was undeniable. Despite this he was paid less than the title challenger... a lot less.
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The disclosed salaries for the event showed that Overeem banked a cool $800,000 for the loss, while Miocic only received $600,000 for his knockout victory. The event's next highest earner was CM Punk, who was handed half a million for his first round submission loss to Gall.
Speaking on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, company man Miocic confessed that Overeem getting paid more for UFC 203 took him by surprise.
“It definitely should change, but the fact that my challenger made more money than me in my last fight was just kind of a slap in the face.”
"You’re making money off me in my hometown, and you’re giving the man that’s a challenger who’s never won the title in the UFC, you’re giving him more money?”
Not only is Miocic one of the most dangerous fighters on the planet, but he's also one of the pound-for-pound soundest fighters in combat sports. Hhe admitted that his kindness played against him when it came to getting paid for his first defence.
“I just felt like I was kinda crapped on a little bit. I try to do things right and work with them, and they just didn’t give me a great deal.”
“That’s my own fault, but also they knew what they were doing. They took my kindness for weakness. They told me it was the best deal they could do, and I said, oh okay, great. And then come to find out, it wasn’t.”
Miocic sounded off by telling host Ariel Helwani to watch this space as he continues his quest to improve the terms of his contract.
