Everyone was shocked when rising UFC star Paddy Pimblett revealed he was contracted to make just $12,000 to show and $12,000 to win for his fight against Rodrigo Vargas at UFC London.

Add in a $50,000 performance bonus and the popular Liverpool fighter walked away with $74,000, which was still a pittance considering how much media and fan attention Paddy ‘The Baddy’ brought to the event.

Fortunately, the days of Paddy being maddy about his pay situation are over. His manager Graham Boyland confirmed Pimblett is now on a much more fair and equitable contract with the UFC moving forward.

“Everybody goes into the UFC on a standard contract,” Boylan told Mirror Fighting. “There’s no difference what you do, you have to go and prove yourself. I can categorically tell you now that contract’s gone, that’s gone – he’s on f—ing big money now. It is what it is, but I’m just happy for him.”

The UFC’s demand that Pimblett enter the promotion on the standard basic fight contract had kept ‘The Baddy’ out of the UFC for years. Pimblett made way more money fighting for his manager Boylan’s Cage Warriors promotion, where he filled arenas in the UK from 4000 to 11,000 capacity. Eventually he ended up going into the UFC on their financial terms, and quickly proved fans around the world are just as excited about Pimblett as regional UK fans were.

Pimblett returns to action at the next UFC London show against the unranked but tough Jordan Leavitt. As weeks went on following the announcement of the second O2 Arena show in 2022, it was a big question mark as to whether ‘The Baddy’ would be on the card. But now we know why he was finally added: the UFC agreed to up his pay, and now the people’s main event will once again carry a big energy into the arena on July 26th.