Colby Covington criticizes Khabib Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev for silence about UFC fighter pay

Colby Covington wants to hear some of the UFC’s top stars speaking up about the issue of fighter compensation.

The former interim UFC welterweight champion has joined the growing noise regarding pay in mixed martial arts’ leading promotion this year.

While Ronda Rousey continues to slam the UFC model after having her comeback this year turned away by the organization, ‘Chaos’ is speaking up amid his own discontent with his employer.

But Covington is not expecting those who collect the biggest slices of the UFC pie to follow suit.

Colby Covington says Khabib, Makhachev, and Topuria will never speak up about UFC pay

Covington is frustrated about UFC White House and his absence from the national celebration in Washington D.C. this June.

Despite Bo Nickal claiming he turned down a fight there, ‘Chaos’ insists he was not offered one and has been ‘iced out’ by the promotion since his loss to Joaquin Buckley in December 2024.

That anger has resulted in Covington slamming the UFC over fighter pay, but he believes silent stars like Khabib Nurmagomedov, Islam Makhachev, and Ilia Topuria will never speak up as required for there to be real change.

“The thing is that those guys who make the biggest influence, have the biggest platforms, like Ilia, like Makhachev, like Khabib, those guys are getting paid well, they are never going to speak out against the UFC,” Covington said during a recent live stream with N3on.

“They do get paid well. Those guys are making $5 million a fight. $5-10 million, yeah,” he added.