Jake Paul: UFC is Dying Under Dana White's Leadership

Jake Paul has never been a fan of Dana White's management of the UFC, and now he believes the CEO might actually be killing the organization.

The next few months are set to feature two of the year's biggest MMA events. On May 16th, MVP MMA will host a show headlined by legends Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano, streaming live on Netflix. Then, on June 14th, White will stage a historic UFC event at the White House. Numerous comparisons are being drawn between the two galas, with prominent figures from both camps exchanging public jabs. Now, Paul has once again taken aim at his long-time rival, White. During an appearance on the "This Past Weekend" podcast, Paul was asked if he would ever work with White. He gave a surprising answer before launching into criticism of the long-serving UFC boss.

When host Theo Von referred to White as "a very smart man," Paul was quick to dismiss the notion.

"He's not smart enough," Paul retorted. "Just look at what he's doing. You're not paying your fighters, you're not putting Jon Jones on the White House card. First, Justin Gaethje is going to lose to Ilia [Topuria] at the White House event. So you have a Spaniard beating a white American at a patriotic White House gala. Big mistake, first of all. Second, why aren't you paying Jon Jones? ... This is one of the most profitable sports organizations in history. Their investors have gotten greedy, they control everything, they look at the profit and loss statements and say, 'Hey, we can just keep pumping this thing.' They've forgotten their heart as a company, and that's the problem. It's dying."

Paul's concerns extend beyond just the long-term health of the UFC. In recent years, the UFC has faced increasing criticism regarding its match-making and event organization. Some fans complain about the lack of star power in main events and the constant stream of events leading to diluted fight cards. Others, however, praise the promotion for continuing to grow its business and deliver fights almost every week.

According to Paul, the MMA product is becoming increasingly uninteresting due to the dominance of wrestling-based champions like Khabib Nurmagomedov and Khamzat Chimaev, as well as the poor fighter pay.

"MMA hasn't stood the test of time because the best fighters just grapple and hold their opponents," Paul stated. "Khabib. Khamzat. Which is boring. Nobody wants to watch that. So it hasn't stood the test of time. Boxing has been around since the 1500s. MMA is 30 years old. It's declining. Also, because it's not run properly, they're getting greedy, and it's a super corporate organization, signed with Paramount, has shareholders, is part of WWE. Ari Emanuel. A public company. Blah, blah, blah."

"So, when they pay fighters 15 percent of the revenue – by the way, it's already dropped to 10 percent – the share is decreasing. The NFL pays its athletes 50 percent of the revenue, so if the NFL makes a billion dollars, the athletes get 500 million dollars. In the UFC, that's 150 million out of a billion, but when you exclude Conor McGregor and Jon Jones, it becomes about 5 percent, 50 million out of a billion."

"But beyond that, if you want to talk purely analytics, coming into the game, I have a hundred million followers or something, and the second biggest promoter is Dana White with about 30. So I'm about three times bigger than him."