UFC 204: Vitor Belfort believes his value is worth much more than he's earning

Yes, salaries in the sport of mixed martial arts (MMA) have increased dramatically over the last few years (example here), but there are still quite a bit of fighters who feel they aren't getting paid what they are worth.

Among them is Vitor Belfort, who says while he gets paid well per fight, his name and accolades should be valued more than they currently are. As he told Fox Sports, he is currently more pre-occupied with trying to book himself some relevant fights in order to up his bank account.

His words:

"Every fight for me it's a good payday. But I think my value is much more than I'm earning right now, what I bring into the sport. I really do believe, especially where this sport is, my value can be much bigger than what it is right now. There's no doubt about it.I love to compete and of course now that the real money's in the sport, I'm looking for fight that's going to be relevant for myself. For business and this is a business as well as a competition. I'm looking to have fun and make a lot of money."

As it stands, Belfort earned $300,000 for each of his last two fights.

As Belfort sees it, the fact that Gegard has been hunting a a fight against him for the longest time only proves that fighters are eager to share the cage with him because they recognize his value.

"That's the fight we wanted. He wanted it as well. When two guys want it, it's good. Business is done. It's just shows the value. My stake goes up. Guys want to fight you and not the champion, that makes you special. People don't want to fight a bum. People want to fight guys that's relevant to the sport and that raises your price. That's good. It shows what I've done. That's what we're here for. We're here to fight each other. "

Should he prove victorious against "The Dreamcatcher" at tonight's (Sat., Oct. 8, 2016) pay-per-view (PPV) event in Manchester, England, "The Phenom" looks to set himself up for another big payday as he believes Michael Bisping will look for a rematch against him should he defeat Dan Henderson in the main event of the evening.

Wishful thinking, or real possibility?

MMAmania.com will provide LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 204 fight card on tonight (Sat., Oct. 8, 2016), starting with the Fight Pass "Prelims" matches online, which are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. ET, right on through the FOX Sports 1-televised under card bouts at 8 p.m. ET and then main card PPV, which is slated to begin at 10 p.m. ET.