Former two-division UFC champion Conor McGregor has effectively voided his current UFC contract following the promotion’s landmark broadcast deal with Paramount, which paved the way for contract renegotiations in February 2026.
McGregor made the claim during a Roblox livestream with his son and content creator Caylus on January 18, claiming that the elimination of the pay-per-view model has fundamentally changed the terms of his existing agreement. The Irish fighter, who has not competed since July 2021, is still under contract for two additional fights but claims the financial structure underpinning that deal no longer exists.
Conor McGregor Voids UFC Contract as Paramount Deal Ends PPV Era
“I’m going into negotiations with the UFC in February and I’m very interested in going,” McGregor said during the stream. “They basically made a new deal with Paramount that’s worth $7.7 billion. So the company has four times the profit, and my contract is now effectively void because there’s no pay-per-view anymore, even though my contract was based on pay-per-view sales.”
McGregor referred to its status as the promotion’s highest-grossing pay-per-view attraction to justify its position. The 37-year-old headlined five of the six best-selling UFC events in history, including UFC 229 against Khabib Nurmagomedov, which generated 2.4 million buys and remains the biggest pay-per-view in MMA history. McGregor reportedly earned around $50 million for that fight in 2018, when PPV points were included
The UFC announced a seven-year, $7.7 billion media rights deal with Paramount in August 2025, more than doubling the value of the previous ESPN deal. The agreement, effective in January 2026, moves all UFC content to Paramount Plus at no additional cost aside from a monthly subscription fee, ending the traditional pay-per-view model that has defined the promotion since its inception.
Under the previous ESPN arrangement, which averaged between $500 million and $550 million annually, fans paid $79.99 per numbered event on top of an ESPN Plus subscription. The new Paramount deal gives the UFC an average annual value of $1.1 billion, with 13 numbered events and 30 Fight Nights streamed exclusively on the platform.
UFC CEO Dana White addressed the compensation shift in August 2025, confirming that fighter bonuses would increase under the new deal but providing few details on how PPV points would be replaced. “Bonuses are definitely going up,” White said at a news conference after Paramount’s announcement. “The low-hanging fruit that’s easy to answer? Bonuses are obviously going to go up. So that will be big.”
Whether the change in the temporary employment model legally invalidates existing contracts remains unclear. McGregor reportedly has two fights left on his current deal, although the impact of the Paramount deal on contractual obligations has not been publicly detailed by the UFC or TKO Group.
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McGregor indicated that he is focusing on the UFC’s plans White House event on June 14, 2026, marking his return. President Donald Trump announced the event will coincide with his 80th birthday and the 250th anniversary of American independence, with plans for an outdoor card on the South Lawn with multiple championship fights.
The former champion completed an 18-month anti-doping suspension in March 2026 after missing three whereabouts tests in 2024. Combat Sports Anti-Doping reduced the standard sanction from 24 months to 18 months, backdated to September 20, 2024, citing McGregor’s cooperation and the fact that he was recovering from an injury at the time of the missed tests.
McGregor’s most recent outing came at UFC 264 in July 2021, when he suffered a broken leg in a second straight loss to Dustin Poirier. That event generated 1.8 million pay-per-view buys despite the outcome, underscoring McGregor’s enduring appeal.
The UFC launched its Paramount era on January 24, 2026 with UFC 324 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The deal represents Paramount’s first major media rights acquisition following its merger with Skydance, completed in August 2025.
Neither the UFC nor McGregor’s representatives have publicly commented on the specific legal status of his contract or the February negotiations.
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