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Brendan Allen scored a big win over Christian Leroy Duncan in the main event of UFC Vegas 122 on Saturday night. The fourth ranked middleweight defended his spot and put himself one win away from a likely shot at the belt. The belt is currently being held by Sean Strickland.<\/p>\n
This sparked a big reaction from Nassourdine Imavov, who is considered the next contender to fight Strickland for the title. Imavov even ambushed Strickland at the UFC Performance Institute last week to try and force through a fight.<\/p>\n
After his big win on Saturday, Allen was asked about Strickland (someone he lost to very early in his UFC career). Allen, choose his words carefully, but did say he respected Strickland for raising the issue of fighter pay.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey man, at the end of the day, you\u2019ll never hear me bitch about my pay,\u201d said Allen. \u201cBut I\u2019d love to have more money. who here isn\u2019t going to want to have more money? so, the guys that don\u2019t need to fight, but back to speak up, and make those stances for more money \u2026 God bless you. I wish I could do that. But I\u2019m happy. But, like I said, I\u2019m just a dumb f**king redneck from Louisiana.\u201d<\/p>\n
Allen continued to talk about the situation and, in real-time, you could see him walking a tight-rope between honestly expressing his opinion over the low rate of fighter pay and the fear of consequences for doing so.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy with what I get paid,\u201d Allen enforced. \u201cI\u2019m doing shit people wish they could. There\u2019s many people where I\u2019m from that wish they could make what I make [and] do what I do. So I\u2019m very thankful. I don\u2019t want to feel like I\u2019m greedy or something like that.\u201c<\/p>\n
Getting paid what you\u2019re worth is not greedy. With the UFC being valued at $7.7 billion by Paramount and with Dana White wagering million dollar stakes on single hands of baccarat, fighters \u2014 as a whole \u2014 must be worth a lot more than they are getting paid right now. Allen\u2019s demure way of talking about money goes to show how well the hurt-business has done at convincing fighters that they don\u2019t have real jobs and are just lucky to be here.<\/p>\n
Despite not wanting to upset the apple-cart \u2014 something Sean Strickland, for all his controversies, is not afraid to do \u2014 Allen did utter a very gentle critique at the pay situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut hats off to Sean for speaking up for trying to get more money because if you look at the scope of things, based on the statistics that are out there, we are underpaid.\u201d<\/p>\n
Allen quickly walked back his statement, though.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut f**k that, I\u2019m not trying to get cancelled. At least from the bosses, I like my paycheck. They know I like my paycheck. I need that shit. My car collection\u2019s still growing. My house still growing. I didn\u2019t mean nothing by it, Hunter [Campbell]. I apologize.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was pretty sad. For every Strickland, there\u2019s probably a lot more Allens. And the result of that will be that no one in four ounce gloves gets any more money anytime soon.<\/p>\n