“I do feel devalued, for sure. Every fighter dreams to reach a level where he will make good money. I have other thoughts nowadays – I’ve been around the world, I have a big wide vision about that. At the same time that they give us our business, they could improve it (payment). We bring millions for the company, I’m a very sellable fighter and everybody wants to watch my fights.

We see a lightweight being paid as much as a beginner. We see a heavyweight non-champion and non-title challenger earning a lot more than us. This situation makes us a little sad but I have to keep battling, we can’t lose our focus.

I don’t know, man. We kill ourselves in training, we give the best of us to be there give the people a show, bring records to the UFC. We give everything we have but we don’t get the recognition we deserve. I don’t know what we have to do, if we need to step in there and kill the other guy, I don’t know.
The UFC featherweight champion recognizes the language barrier but don’t feel wronged by this element and by the difference of nationality, even if the UFC is an American company.

I don’t know if that is the case. We can feel that it can be bad for guys like me, Renan Barao and Anderson Silva because we can’t speak English fluently. What matters inside there is how we fight, not the language. We have to negotiate. Who takes care of this for me is Dede Pederneiras. I’m there to give what people want to see.”

In a sport where your fan appeal and not your skill or rank weigh heavily on your worth, it’s hard to find a UFC fighter happy with their salary.

In a recent interview with ESPN Brazil, Jose Aldo expressed his concerns with his pay and his thoughts on what he can do to improve it.