Former UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland has responded to BKFC’s Mike Perry after the two exchanged words online regarding UFC fighter pay and BKFC fighter pay.

Sean Strickland recently slammed the promotion, BKFC, claiming at the UFC 302 media day that BKFC fighters break their faces for “a couple of thousand bucks”.

Former UFC welterweight, Mike Perry, has made quite the name for himself since signing with BKFC and has become the promotion’s biggest star, despite not holding a belt. Strickland’s comments drew a response from Perry, who claimed ‘Tarzan’ is fighting in the UFC for “pesos”.

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Sean Strickland responds to Mike Perry with fighter pay rant

‘Platinum’ Perry isn’t the only BKFC fighter who has called Strickland out for his comments, as former UFC lightweight champion turned BKFC fighter, Eddie Alvarez, also slammed the 33-year-old for his comments.

“Sean Strickland is fighting for the UFC for pesos and I’m getting paid over here. He’s always posting videos on Instagram where he walks outside his garage or his front door, and somebody is in his driveway and he’s trying to fight bare knuckle there for free,” Perry commented.

Responding to Perry’s video, Strickland didn’t exactly take a swipe at Perry but instead, agreed with his comments for the most part.

“UFC fighter pay is utter garbage, they’re signing guys at 10/10 that should be criminal,” Strickland agreed.

The UFC tends to sign fighters on a show-and-win bonus basis, with the majority of new signings likely being on $10,000 to show and $10,000 extra for a win, however, that isn’t always the case.

Although Strickland believes that structure is ‘criminal’, he has claimed that the majority of BKFC fighters will be earning less than that.

“But the vast majority of BKFC fighters are getting paid way less than that. As a UFC fighter, I advocate for better pay for me and the entire roster, you should do the same for your guys.

“While I’m on my soapbox from a poor man who became a kind of rich man, once you have capital it just snowballs. These elites could probably never take a paycheck again and easily make $500k a year,” Strickland continued.

Strickland sitting out in the hopes of a title shot

The outspoken middleweight returned to the win column just over a week ago at UFC 302, defeating Paulo Costa over their five-round co-main event.

Before that fight, Strickland took to social media to reveal his anger with the promotion, claiming that he was offered less than $200k show and $200k win to fight Costa on short notice.

Despite that, following his win ‘Tarzan’ has admitted that he will sit out and wait to be given another title shot, instead of taking another fight in the meantime, however, he could be waiting a while.

Current UFC middleweight champion, Dricus Du Plessis, is rumored to be fighting Israel Adesanya at UFC 305 on August 18, but the promotion is yet to announce it’s official.

Top contenders Robert Whittaker and Khamzat Chimaev are also scheduled to face off in the main event of the promotion’s inaugural event in Saudi Arabia, on June 22. The winner of that fight could potentially be next to fight for the 185lb title, instead of Strickland.