Dana White and his team have created something brand new which has divided the fans and UFC fighters. The Power Slap League is absolutely what the name suggests it is. The only form of offense is to slap an opponent as hard as the competitors can. In terms of defense, there isn’t much as the participants take the blows right on their chin.
Naturally, the endeavor is not going down well with a portion of the spectators and fighters. Most notably, young boxing superstar Ryan Garcia took to Twitter and stated his disgust for the Power Slap League. He was uncomfortable about the prospect of the participants taking blunt shots to their chin. MMA personalities like Cris Cyborg and Al Iaquinta also seemed unimpressed by the league.
Although there are a lot of conflicting opinions about the Power Slap League, not many have heard from the actual participants themselves. Recently, Complex caught up with some of the contenders in the league and asked about their side of the story. One of them was Jewel Scott, who was a pro boxer and MMA fighter prior to joining Power Slap.
Having fought inside an MMA cage and a boxing ring, Scott knows the pressures that come with competing on a grand stage. So how does the feeling differ when he enters the stage for Power Slap League? According to Scott, there is not much of a difference between the two. The 38-year-old even iterated that he was ready to even “die” to succeed in the sport.
Scott added, “It’s actually not that different for me overall, because I’m kind of thinking along the same lines with the thought in the front of my mind that I may get killed here, or I may die here. So I’m willing to do whatever I have to do to not only survive, but win and be victorious.”
Is the format of slap fighting unsafe for contestants?
So what does Jewel have to say about all the controversies surrounding Power Slap? Recently there was footage of a slap fighter’s face being horribly disfigured after a contest. It raised a lot of questions about the safety of the sport. However, Jewel Scott does not seem too bothered about the safety concerns. He praised the UFC for putting measures in place to avoid any unwanted accidents.
He said, “There’s not many injuries that go on, there’s not many guys with CTE. There is nothing proven harmful about all this in all of the years of previous existence. There’s not many injuries because of the system of commission and doctors and assistance that the UFC provides.”
Scott also addressed Garcia’s concern for the sport and pointed his finger toward the safety measures in boxing. He brought up the point that many boxers have lost their lives due to injuries suffered in the ring. Hence, he is left baffled that there aren’t many people who are up in arms about that. So Jewel Scott does not see the point in creating controversy about Power Slap League.
How much money are Power Slap League contestants making?
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is notoriously accused of not paying its fighters enough. The former UFC light heavyweight fighter Jon Jones had his differences with the company because of it. Francis Ngannou, who was the UFC heavyweight champ at the time, walked away from the company due to a pay dispute.
UFC veteran Eric Spicely said he was contacted to see if he’d like to participate in the Power Slap League. Not sure what the full pay scale is, but this nugget caught my attention: pic.twitter.com/Qlej95KmJs
— Luke Thomas (@lthomasnews) January 23, 2023
So there is a lot of curiosity among the fan base to know how much money the contestants are making for the Power Slap League. While the official fight purses for the contestants are not available to the public, a former UFC fighter has shed some light on the matter. Eric Spicely, who last competed in the UFC in 2019, revealed that he was offered a base salary of $2,000 to participate!
As per Spicely, the company offered him $2,000 to fight and another $2,000 to win. In total, he was going to make $4,000 if everything went right for him. It is a shockingly low number, even compared to some of the salaries debutant fighters make in the UFC. But Jewel Scott did reveal that UFC apparently gave him $420 when he signed up for the company, which may be separate from his final purse.
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