Outside Source
St. Pierre reaped the benefits of pay-per-view points during his heyday. | Getty/UFC
When Georges St. Pierre was at the top of his game, negotiating for a portion of pay-per-view revenue came with the territory.
As one of the UFC’s biggest stars, St. Pierre was a driving force behind pay-per-view buys for events that he would headline. Like many big names, the Canadian was paid for those sales through points — though the exact amount was rarely, if ever, revealed. Moving forward, pay-per-view points will be a thing of the past.
When the UFC announced its new rights agreement with Paramount on Monday, one of the most noteworthy points of the deal was the elimination of pay-per-view cards. Starting in 2026, all numbered UFC events will be available through Paramount+ or CBS.
While the numbers of the deal — seven years, $7.7 billion — are astronomical, St. Pierre isn’t so sure that it’s a positive for fighters on the UFC roster.
GSP: Fighters Could Lose Leverage with New Deal
“It could be good for the UFC, as a promoter, but terrible for the fighters because when I was competing I was able to have a great argument to negotiate on my contract,” St. Pierre told Covers. “I could tell the UFC, ‘Hey, if you want me to do all the promotion, I want to become a partner. I want a piece of the pie to negotiate a part of the pay-per-view revenue. Because if I’m doing all the promotion, I’m helping you, but you need to help me. You need to make me a partner.’ So it might be a bad thing for the fighters in a way that they have less leverage.
“That’s what I think. I think it’s going to take off some leverage for the big names to have an argument to negotiate more money.”
St. Pierre hasn’t fought since November 2017, when he defeated Michael Bisping in the UFC 217 main event to capture the middleweight crown. In addition to St. Pierre, other top stars such as Conor McGregor, Jon Jones, Ronda Rousey and Brock Lesnar were believed to receive pay-per-view points once buys for an event exceeded a certain amount.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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