Neil Seery issues chilling warning to UFC about fighters living on the edge of poverty

The Dubliner is worried the promotion is all about the top 5 percent.

Neil Seery is one of the few UFC fighters who has a day job. The Dubliner is still in full-time work, as a warehouse manager near Dublin airport, while trying to compete in the multi-million dollar octagon. His most recent fight saw him claim a bonus for his impressive win over Jon Delos Reyes  in Dublin, which has now led him to square up to Kyogi Horiguchi on May 8th in Rotterdam. The 36-year-old could be in line for another major payday if he wins, but '2 Tap' feels that the UFC need to realise the financial pressure competing in UFC imposes upon those just below the stratosphere of a Conor McGregor or Joe Duffy .

“A lot of the fighters are living beyond their means and they haven’t seen the downside of it yet. When the money stops coming and the fights aren’t coming anymore, they won’t know what to do. “What do you do, though? You can’t walk into a company at 30 years of age and tell them you want a job. You might have trained full time for 10 years, but you’ve never worked. You might have worked in the gym, but that’s not going to give you experience to walk into any job outside of the fight game. “There are only a handful of people that make enough money to live like a superstar all year long in MMA. They have the type of money where they can just decide to not fight anymore."

The Dubliner told Fightland that with the growing popularity of the sport, there are too many young fighters who feel that there is easy money to be made in UFC and MMA.

“People think I’m loaded because I got that bonus in the last fight. I cycled up here today on a pushbike. My car is in the garage getting fixed! I’ve got no interest in buying a load of new stuff. People ask me why don’t you buy this and that? It’s because I have no interest in that stuff.” “People think once you get to the UFC you’re made for life. I’ve had five fights in the UFC, I’m about to have my sixth, but there’s not a chance in hell that I’d be able to pay my mortgage for the year and support my family off that. “There are a lot of people that just shut themselves down, they think this is all they need. They think they’re set and that they’ll be doing fine in 10 or 15 years. Who even knows if the UFC is going to be around in ten years? There are no guarantees in the fight game.