Ramsey Nijem says cut from UFC was result of refusal to sign new deal, not losing skid

Ramsey Nijem was one of many fighter released by the UFC in the promotion’s latest roster purge. The former finalist on “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 13 thinks it had more to do with his unhappiness with his paycheck than his performance in the octagon.

Speaking with MMAjunkie Radio, Nijem said that he had been in rather one-sided negotiations with the UFC shortly ahead of his release.

“They made an offer to me and – man, I’m losing money fighting there,” Nijem said. “I said no and that I need more money to fight because it’s not possible. If you don’t have sponsorships it’s not profitable. It’s a really hard way to make a minimum wage salary.”

According to Nijem, the reaction to his demand for more money was met with aggressive moves from the UFC as he was told his career was going to get much harder should he continue to refuse.

That, along with a refusal to sign onto the new UFC drug testing program overseen by USADA and mirroring the practices of the World Anti-Doping Agency, led to his being pushed – and eventually kicked – out the door.

“I asked for more money and they said, ‘No, this is what you’re going to get,’” Nijem said. “That was that. The next thing you know, I got pulled out and told I was going to get bad matchups. I was given a bad matchup. I quote unquote lost that last fight (a split decision loss to Andrew Holbrook at UFC on FOX 16), which I feel like was one of the best performances I’ve had. But, whatever.

“After that was the whole WADA thing. I just don’t think I get paid enough to tell someone where I’m at every single day. I’d have to move up a weight class without IVs. It was a lot of things, man. It was a month later after my fight. If it was because of the fight, I’d have gotten cut right after the fight. But it really wasn’t because of that. It’s because I refused to sign the WADA and I didn’t want to keep losing money.”

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