Former fighter Al Iaquinta has leaked a series of messages with Justin Gaethje regarding pay after the UFC star addressed how little he's earned from fighting.
On Saturday night the massively popular Gaethje will return to the UFC octagon for an interim lightweight title fight against rising talent Paddy Pimblett inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The fight will headline the first UFC card of 2026 and the debut card of the MMA organisation's massive new $7.7 billion US broadcast deal with Paramaount+.
Since the deal with Paramount+ was announced, fans, fighters and pundits have spoken out about the amount of money those competing in the UFC are paid, arguing that they should be paid more.
Advert
Chief among those calling for an increase in pay is Gaethje, who called out the UFC during a press conference ahead of his bout with Pimblett.
But amid his calls for better fighter pay, UFC legend Iaquinta has released some private messages between him and Gaethje that appear to contradict that American's message.
Just days before his title fight with Pimblett, Gaethje claimed that he will not receive 'one dollar more' for the fight than he would have done before the Paramount+ deal.
He later criticised the fact that he has not earned $1million (£741,000) from pay bonuses despite earning at least one in each of his 14 UFC fights.
UFC President and CEO Dana White later hit back at the star fighter, claiming that Gaethje had been offered more money but he never replied to the UFC's calls.
“Gaethje, without getting into all that stuff, Gaethje was offered more money, and Gaethje never responded,” White said on The Pat McAfee Show,
Before adding: “[But] we’re good [with Gaethje].”
And now Iaquinta, who fought in the UFC's lightweight division from 2012 to 2021, has weighed in, sharing DMs of him encouraging a reluctant Gaethje to demand more pay ahead of a potential fight in June 2018.
The pair were rumoured to fight around the time, with Iaquinta stating that both men should demand that the fight take place or that they wouldn't fight at all.
Iaquinta also encouraged Gaethje to join him in asking for $150,000 to fight and an extra $50,000 for the winner.
However, it appears that Gaethje, who at this time was only in the early days of his UFC career, was happy with what he was being paid at the time as he consistently rebutted Iaquinta's proposals, telling him to 'handle your s***".
Iaquinta later messaged once again, claiming that he had received the pay day for his fight against Kevin Lee on December 15, 2018, the final win of the American's MMA career.
Although Gaethje's messages do appear to contradict his comments ahead of this weekend's fight with Pimblett, the fact that they come from the start of his career and before he proved himself an invaluable asset to the UFC clearly changes things.
SPORTbible have reaced out to Justin Gaethje's team for comment.
Topics: UFC, MMA, Justin Gaethje, Dana White
Ben McCrum