UFC president Dana White claims the world’s leading MMA promotion will “soon” introduce full-time health benefits to their fighters.

White replied to a fan on Instagram who asked him if the UFC would consider having a full-time health benefits package for its fighters so they can deal with issues once their fighting careers are over. For the first time in over a decade, White revealed that the UFC is working on such a benefits package for its athlete (via MMAjunkie.com).

Fan: “Will the ufc ever offer their fighters full time health benefits so they can have them after their careers are over and possibly deal with life altering issues from fighting”

White: “Soon”

In 2011, White and the UFC introduced health insurance for its fighters in the event they were injured during fights or in training camps. However, fighters that have retired from the UFC and not given any benefits up to this point. That has led to plenty of criticism of the UFC, who are making record profits these days but who are not giving their athletes the ability to have health benefits once they are retired. It looks like that may change.

On the surface, this seems like a positive for the fighters, who need these types of benefits both during their fighting careers and once they are over. The sport of MMA is still relatively new and we don’t know how these athletes are going to react in their later years after taking so much punishment inside the Octagon. However, just based on the knowledge that we have about brain trauma and CTE, for example, we know that athletes taking blows to the head are often dealing with issues later in their lives. Hopefully, these benefits help the fighters off if they are introduced as White says they are going to be.

What do you think about Dana White teasing a new full-time benefits package for its fighters?