Sean O’Malley’s response to Conor Benn’s reported $15 million Zuffa Boxing deal said more concerning the separation between MMA and boxing than it did about fighter pay.
When news surfaced that Benn had signed a one-fight agreement reportedly price eight figures, O’Malley didn’t query the strategy a lot because the identity. “I don’t even know who Conor Benn is,” he said to MMAmania. “He’s supposedly a reasonably large name in boxing, but I’ve never f—king heard of him.”
That admission landed harder than the paycheck. If one among the UFC’s most visible champions has no awareness of a British welterweight considered a serious industrial asset, it underscores how siloed the audiences remain even under the identical corporate umbrella.
O’Malley also acknowledged the business logic behind the move. “It’s also a business, and in the event that they think it’s a great move and that guy goes to herald money, I get it,” he said. “Business is business. He hates Oscar De La Hoya, hates Eddie Hearn, so it’s like let’s take their biggest star and pay them. I can see it being an ego thing.”
Zuffa Boxing’s cope with Benn reportedly stands at $15 million for one fight, a figure that immediately drew comparisons inside MMA, where top UFC fighters typically depend on pay-per-view shares to succeed in similar totals. O’Malley made that contrast plain. “I’m not making f—king $15 million to fight.”
The number is what caught attention, however the response revealed something else: Zuffa’s expansion into boxing is working in a market its own MMA stars don’t necessarily track. Benn could also be a headline acquisition in a single sport, but to a UFC champion, he was a reputation without recognition.
Whether that changes as Zuffa builds out its boxing arm stays to be seen. For now, the deal landed less as a crossover moment and more as a reminder that the 2 fan bases still live in separate worlds.
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Last Updated on 2026/02/23 at 8:21 PM