Jake Paul mocks Ilia Topuria by labeling his UFC pay ‘NFL rookie’ money during heated phone call

His latest back-and-forth came during Adin Ross’ recent Kick stream, which saw the polarizing influencer hosting UFC star Topuria.

Paul phoned in after the Spaniard gave a less than positive assessment of his boxing talents, and it is safe to say that they had a difference of opinion on the call.

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Jake Paul roasts Ilia Topuria and his UFC pay over the phone

In the past, Topuria has shown respect to Paul’s boxing venture. But after he instead said the American “sucks” this time around, Paul fired some shots of his own after calling in.

When Paul and Topuria spoke on the phone, one topic of conversation was a pay comparison between the two.

After they spoke about a potential sparring session down the line and made various promises about how that clash would go, Paul took aim at Topuria’s pay.

“You can’t do anything. You make probably $2 million a fight and he (Dana White) just paid Conor Benn ($15 million),” Paul said.

Paul has frequently targeted Dana White and the UFC over how much they pay fighters, and Benn’s lucrative deal with Zuffa Boxing has only fueled that debate.

When Topuria insisted Paul was “wrong” about his remuneration, the American fired more jibes.

“Then how come you weren’t on the highest-paid athletes list? Where were you? We missed you! We missed you on the list this year!

“Brother, you get paid as much as an NFL rookie. Like, congrats,” he added.

The UFC champion hit back, saying that unlike the YouTuber-turned-boxer, he has no need to remind his fans how much he earns.

“The difference between me and you is your value is based on perception,” Topuria said.

“You need to sell that. You need to say to your fans how much you are making because you need to fulfil something that you are missing inside yourself.”

UFC fighter pay is under heavy scrutiny — and rightly so

The UFC was always going to face increased pressure regarding fighter compensation after inking a $7.7 billion broadcast deal with Paramount.

Questions immediately arose regarding the impact the agreement would have on the roster, and Dana White insisted fighter pay would go up.

So far, evidence of that has been few and far between.

The obvious change has been an increase in bonuses, but even doubling the extra checks from $50k to $100k has not put the bonuses in line with how the UFC’s overall revenue has inflated over the past decade.

And behind the scenes, a few big-name fighters have revealed that they did not earn more in their first fights of 2026 than they would have last year under the ESPN deal.

Gaethje went public about his UFC 324 pay, and Sean Strickland shared a similar sentiment in the lead-up to his victory over Anthony Hernandez at UFC Houston.