Cody Garbrandt: UFC paying fighters $10k to get their asses beat while MLB players make millions

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) bantamweight champion, Cody Garbrandt, is not opposed to the “shit show” the promotion staged in the wake of UFC 226, because light heavyweight kingpin, Daniel Cormier, is blessed to be able to make his millions as a mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter.

It certainly beats a $10,000 ass whooping, which happened to seven fighters competing at this event.

Garbrandt was on hand for a special media luncheon on Monday to promote his UFC 227 pay-per-view (PPV) title fight against reigning division kingpin, TJ Dillashaw, taking place this Saturday night (Aug. 4, 2018) in Los Angeles, California.

It’s a rematch from their UFC 217 showdown that ended with “No Love” getting knocked out. Garbrandt contends that pre-fight injuries were grievous enough to warrant a withdrawal, but that financial concerns forced to gut it out.

Because life as a UFC fighter is “eat what you kill.”

“My money thing, I never wanted to have my motivation to be money, that’s not why I got into this sport, I got into it to be a world champion,” Garbrandt said. “What can I do? I pulled out of the fight [for their first date in July]. I had a wife that was pregnant. I fought Dominick Cruz for $200,000 a year before that. I’m trying to buy a house, I’m trying to get insurance, all the things you’re thinking you made it, you’re a world champion and you’ve got all this f*cking money but we’re not, man. I understand you have to build your way up to it and it’s good, but, I couldn’t pull out.”

Unless you’re a complete lunatic like Travis Fulton, who has well over 300 professional MMA fights, the window for a fighter to compete and make any kind of real money is small, particularly at the highest level in UFC, so any opportunity to cash in, understandably, becomes paramount.

Just ask this guy.

“You have to live life and now I have to take care of my family,” Garbrandt said. “That’s why you see all these fighters who want these money fights. You can’t blame them. They go in there and literally take years off our life. For what, $40,000? $50,000, some of these fighters are coming in 10 and 10 so, what, if they get their ass beat and make what, $10,000? It’s crazy, man. You’ve got NHL players and MLB players making millions and millions and millions and we’re the fastest growing sport in the world. Something’s gotta change.”

It won't change because the same fighters who are asking for change won’t change it, because MMA is prize fighting, not a sport, and first class doesn’t really give a fuck about what’s happening in steerage.