UFC Flyweight Champion Deiveson Figueiredo has made a significant change to his management team ahead of his UFC return. Since the beginning of his UFC career, Deiveson has been represented by Wallid Ismail. However, Figueiredo recently got rid of him and signed Urijah Faber as his new manager.
Deiveson issued a statement regarding the reason for his decision. Despite being a UFC champ and one of the best fighters in the company, he has not been paid accordingly. According to the champ, he has been making around $150,000 to $200,000 for his championship contests. In his statement, Figueiredo stated he felt disrespected by the amount of money has been making.
“I’ve changed managers…. Guys fighting for the belt get paid around $500,000, and defending [champions] get around $600,000, and my Numbers would never go over $200,000. This last fight, I got paid [$100,000 to show and $100,000 to win] or [$100,000 to show, $50,000 to win], I Don’t know. Totally embarrassing.”
“I thank [Wallid Ismail] for everything he’s done for me. I haven’t done anything unfair with him, I’m sure of that, and I hope he never says otherwise.” (h/t via MMA FIghting)
Urijah Faber is a retired UFC veteran. He is also the founder of Team Alpha Male. The gym has had many UFC champions over the years. It includes the likes of T.J. Dillashaw and Cody Garbrandt. The current 125lbs champion also trained with the gym for a brief period of time from 2018-2019. Although he moved on from the gym in 2019, it seems like The God of War is rekindling his links with Faber.
@UFCFightWeek @ufc @UrijahFaber muito bom te encontrar!!!
— Deiveson (@Daico_Deiveson) July 2, 2022
Seguimos de vitória em vitória !!!
Las Vegas está incrível, obrigado a esse público incrível pela recepção🙏🏿✊🏿
@dnsbusinesss@DeniHonorio pic.twitter.com/CQumx1CHGb
Faber has recently cornered Maycee Barber and Clay Guida. It is evident that Faber is developing a reputation as a manager in the world of MMA and his recent partnership with Deiveson Figueiredo will only boost his profile even further.
Is Deiveson Figueiredo underpaid compared to other UFC champions?
Was Deiveson Figueiredo justified to ditch Wallid Ismail for the lack of pay? Let’s take a look into Deiveson’s fight purses for his championship fights since 2020.
The 34-year-old fought for the belt for the first in 2020 against Joseph Benavidez. For that fight, Deiveson failed to make weight and was fined $30,000 for it. His fight purse included $100,000 for making the walk to the Octagon, $50,000 as a win bonus and $5,000 for fight incentive. In total, he had a payout of $125,000.
In the rematch, Deiveson made $230,000 to win the UFC Flyweight Championship. It included $100,000 show money, $50,000 win bonus, $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus and $30,000 as a fight week incentive.
But his pay got significantly better for his title defence against Alex Perez. Deiveson made $490,000 which included $200,000 each to win and show. He also earned $90,000 as a post-fight bonus and fight week incentive.
However, to Deiveson’s point, his fight purses took a massive nose dive since the Perez fight. He made $295,000, $252,000 and $232,000 respectively for his three fights against Brandon Moreno at UFC 256, UFC 263 and UFC 270. Hence, Figueiredo does have a point in being unhappy about his last few paydays.
To put things into perspective, for his last three fights, UFC Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya made $540,000, $540,000 and $642,000 in disclosed salaries at UFC 259, UFC 263 and UFC 271 respectively. If we look at the heavyweight champ Francis Ngannou‘s purses for his two title fights at UFC 260 and UFC 270, The Predator made $580,000 and $642,000 for the events respectively.
The greatest female MMA fighter of all time, Amanda Nunes has also been making almost double what Deiveson Figueiredo made in her last few fights. She earned $590,000, $490,000, $490,000, $490,000 and $442,000 for her respective bouts at UFC 239, UFC 245, UFC 250, UFC 259 and UFC 269. (All figures for Figueiredo, Adesanya, Ngannou and Nunes are via The SportsDaily.)
Do you think Deiveson Figueiredo made the right call by replacing Wallid Ismail with Urijah Faber? Can Faber fetch Figueiredo a more lucrative contract going forward? Let us know in the comments below.
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