Social media star Logan Paul (in partnership with KSI) has inked a deal to make their sports drink PRIME the official sports drink of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. As part of this agreement, the blue and red corners of the Octagon will now be known as the PRIME hydration zones.
In the days leading up to this past weekend’s bout between his younger brother, Jake Paul, and Tommy Fury, Paul declared that he would stake his stock in PRIME on his brother’s victory. Jake Paul ultimately fell short in that battle, which was decided by a split decision.
After that, Paul asked the question “who wants it?” in reference to the bet he had made earlier on Twitter.
Chris Weidman, who previously held the title of UFC middleweight champion, has responded to this news and provided an explanation as to why he believes Paul should send his PRIME pay-cheques to fighters.
Here is what he had to say about it on his show called Won’t Back Down Radio.
“Logan Paul, who by the way, sounded like a complete buffoon when he got the mic in the fight, he went on Twitter and said he’d bet his equity in PRIME, the hydration energy drink,” said Weidman.
“We now have hydration corners, the red and blue hydration corners. He said he’d bet his equity in that to anyone who wanted it, that Jake Paul would win this fight.”
“After the fight, he said, ‘Who wants it’. I’m sure he’s just messing around but either way, I know his brother Jake Paul is about MMA fighters being taken care of,” continued Weidman. “He would approve of this: Take your equity and give it to all the UFC fighters, split it all up. Let’s not forget back in the day we had sponsors on our shorts, they took everything away.”
“…Years go by, and there are multiple sponsors in the cage… There’s nobody talking anymore about fighters getting a piece of that pie. As an old-time guy myself, I don’t forget.”
Since 2013, UFC fighters have been prohibited from having independent in-cage sponsors, and they earn no cut of the majority of sponsorship deals signed by the UFC.