Who is Angel Pacheco, defeated Contender Series Fighter Dana White handed UFC contract?

Angel Pacheco is a defeated fighter who emerged from the Contender Series, where fighters compete to secure a spot in the top-tier MMA organization, the UFC.

Dana White faced criticism regarding fighter pay, as many are aware that most UFC fighters do not earn substantial amounts of money, and their fight purses often don’t reflect the level of risk involved in the sport.

Dana White hands UFC contract to Angel Pacheco

Angel Pacheco is the current, 1st ranked of 18 active Minnesota pro featherweights. He was part of the most recent contender series which is a place for underground MMA fighters to get a name and have the chance to fight in the UFC.

Pacheco lost his fight in the contender series and was still offered a contract in the UFC. Which came as a surprise to the fighter as he did not expect to get the contract after his loss. In a very heart warming video Angel is seen crying when Dana offers him the contract.

Six fighters were given contracts to the UFC after their performances in the Contender series and out of the six only two were given to people who lost their fights, Angel Pacheco being one of them.

White slashed $30 million in fighter expenses amid profit boom

After amassing large profits last year Dana White still slashed thirty million dollars from fighter pay. Majority of the UFC roaster does not make a lot of money and makes barely enough to make ends meet.

MMA journalist John Nash stated, “last year, they had an earnings call. In that earnings call, they detailed how much the fighters made and how much growth we’ve seen in fighter pay from 2005 to 2021. I calculated that and that came out to $178.8 million fighter pay in 2021. That might not be exact but based on the figures they gave, that’s the amount they should have paid the fighters, which is about 17.5 percent of revenue in 2021. Interestingly enough, they note in this filing that they were able to cut fighter expenses by $32.8 million in 2022 from 2021”.

Fans have also questioned Dana about fighter pay and Dana did respond to this in a popular Youtube video by saying, “Believe me, these guys get paid what they’re supposed to get paid. They eat what they kill. They get a percentage of the PPV buys and the money is spread out amongst all the fighters.”

What are your thoughts on this? Should Dana White be signing more fighter if he is underpaying them? Do let us know.

To know more about Angel Pacheco do read this article.