Sean O’Malley’s White House win has quickly turned into a fresh fighter-pay debate after the former UFC champion said he made around $600,000 for the bout. That figure drew a stunned response from Eddie Hearn, who argued O’Malley was underpaid for one of the biggest stages the promotion has ever built.
Eddie Hearn Questions UFC Pay Structure After Sean O’Malley Reveal
UFC Freedom 250 at the White House on June 14, 2026, delivered a second-round TKO as Sean O’Malley dropped Aiemann Zahabi twice for a stoppage at 4:02 of round two. The event, staged on the South Lawn, was the UFC’s most symbolic show in three decades, with the White House calling its cost over $60 million.
O’Malley later said he made roughly $600,000 for that fight, a figure he called “close-ish” to reports and described as a drop from his title-run paydays. He told host Steiny on the One Night with Steiny podcast, “It definitely sucks [fighting for less]”.
That detail set off a sharp reaction from promoter Eddie Hearn, who lamented that lower-card fighters earned more than the White House main-event champ. Hearn said, “You’ve literally got guys making more for an eight-round fight against a guy that I would beat than Sean O’Malley made fighting at the White House”. He added, “Those guys need to stop being suppressed. I’m just shocked by the mindset of, ‘Oh well, there’s nothing else we can do, really. It is what it is.’ There’s a guy fighting on the undercard in the fourth fight who’s making more than you”.
Hearn’s ire stems from a months-long public fight with Dana White over Zuffa Boxing, a new venture the UFC president launched earlier this year. In February, White compared taking on established promoters like Hearn to “assaulting infants,” and Hearn responded that “Zuffa’s offerings are utterly subpar”. The war of words grew when Conor Benn left Matchroom for Zuffa, prompting White to challenge Hearn to a fight. Hearn has said he does not view Zuffa Boxing as a serious threat and called its inaugural cruiserweight title announcement “the cringiest thing I’d ever see”.
The backstage tension also includes the long-awaited British heavyweight showdown. In April, Hearn declared the Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury fight “signed, sealed and delivered,” confirming the bout while White looked to become the promoter for the fight.
In pure pay terms, the gap can be huge. Sean O’Malley said he made around $600,000 for his White House fight, while Conor Benn’s one-fight Zuffa Boxing deal was reported at $15 million, a number Sean himself publicly reacted to earlier this year. The wider structure is just as striking, with court disclosures in the UFC antitrust case showing UFC fighters receive about 18 to 20 percent of company revenue, while internal benchmarking discussed around that case placed boxing’s share at about 62.5 percent.
