Tyron Woodley claims to have received the same paycheck as Donald Cerrone during his Ultimate Fighting Championship days, and he isn’t happy about it.
Woodley won the UFC welterweight title in 2016 and defended it four times before losing it to Kamaru Usman in 2019. “The Chosen One” revealed that he made $500,000 for his last title fight against Usman and was planning to part ways with the promotion years prior over fighter pay.
“I was going to leave the UFC after [fighting] Darren Till.” I told them, ‘F—-ing cut me, dog. Ya’ll don’t want me here. Why ya’ll keep holding on to me, dog?’ We [kept] fighting and s—t every fight because you know how I was. I was a gorilla... I knew the numbers so well. I knew what everybody was making. I’m not [going to] go out there and be making the same as 'Cowboy' Cerrone.” Woodley said on the Mighty Cast podcast with Demetrious Johnson.
“That motherf—-er ain’t never touched gold in his life. That’s just a principle thing. Sometimes when you’re an African American in this game, they think you should just be appreciative. I’m not just appreciative. I’m thankful that you gave me an opportunity, but you didn’t give me the gifts. God gave me the gifts. I’m thankful to him.”
Johnson is also a prime example of top talent being underpaid in the UFC, allegedly having to record three title defenses to secure a champion’s contract and never earning pay-per-view points. Woodley also claims to have fought with the UFC over Johnson’s pay.
“I argued with them [over you a couple times,” Woodley said. “It ain’t have s—t to do with me, but I was like, nah. I was talking numbers. I’m like, when you go to basketball, it don’t matter if Steph Curry throwing a Monster can at somebody’s dome or bust a window out. He can pull a 3. He’s going to get paid top dollar... You got DJ who got [11] titles, but you going to pay ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone the same as him? Cowboy was making [$350,000]. He never touched gold ever. So, your reason behind him making $350,000 per fight is that he never complains, he takes any fight that you offer him, he’ll even fight injured, he’ll even fight last-minute notice. That don’t work for me.”
Woodley parted ways with the UFC on a four-fight losing skid in 2021 and went on to suffer two boxing losses against Jake Paul later that year, including one via brutal KO.
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