{"id":53522,"date":"2026-03-22T06:58:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T06:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=53522"},"modified":"2026-03-22T06:58:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T06:58:16","slug":"c995v7yl219oat_mediumrssat_campaignrss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2026\/03\/22\/c995v7yl219oat_mediumrssat_campaignrss\/","title":{"rendered":"UFC London: Fighter pay debate laid bare as Conor Benn deal described as &#8216;heartbreaking&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Some of the most impressive performances at UFC London came on the undercard.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Nathaniel Wood overcame the odds yet again to beat Losene Keita, while Mason Jones overwhelmed Axel Sola in a bruising back and forth fight of the year encounter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Jones and Sola were covered in blood and breathing heavily by the end of their contest, with both fighters swinging until the final bell, using every last drop of energy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Jones&#8217; performance was the type that can have a lasting effect on a fighter&#8217;s career but he and Wood roused the fans on a night when the atmosphere was sometimes flat at the O2 Arena.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Fighters on the prelims like Wood and Jones don&#8217;t get as much media attention or promotion from the UFC &#8211; and strikingly less money than their headlining peers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But in a sport that demands so much from the flesh and mind, there are arguments the athletes should be better looked after amid a changing landscape in combat sports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Fighter pay has been questioned by athletes and the media recently after boxer Conor Benn secured a reported \u00a311m one-fight deal with Zuffa Boxing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Zuffa Boxing is owned by UFC president Dana White, so critics have asked why the 56-year-old isn&#8217;t paying similar amounts to his MMA fighters under contract.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The UFC gives about 20% of revenue to fighter pay, compared with boxers who get about 60% of revenue from their events.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">London&#8217;s Wood, who has won 11 of 14 fights in the UFC, says he hopes the Benn deal will spark a change because he was &#8220;heartbroken&#8221; when he saw how much he would be earning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;When you think I&#8217;ve been in the UFC for eight years, but I&#8217;m not on that, I&#8221;m not even on 1% of that,&#8221; Wood told BBC Sport before UFC London.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Especially when I believe MMA is the tougher sport as well, but again I just try and control what&#8217;s in my hands and it&#8217;s got nothing to do with me.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It was definitely heartbreaking to see someone is getting paid that much.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#UFC #London #Fighter #pay #debate #laid #bare #Conor #Benn #deal #heartbreaking<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some of the most impressive performances at UFC London came on the undercard. Nathaniel Wood overcame the odds yet again&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53523,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53522"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53524,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53522\/revisions\/53524"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}