Kevin Lee breaks silence on being first fighter paid in bitcoin

Kevin Lee has made some big changes in his MMA career now that he is no longer with the UFC. The former interim title challenger has signed with Khabib Nurmagomedov’s promotion, Eagle FC, and is set to be the first MMA fighter paid in bitcoin.

MMA is embracing the cryptocurrency side of things as Kevin Lee is now being paid with bitcoin and the UFC is sponsored by Crypto.com. Other sports have begun to embrace the bitcoin side of things and a few athletes are started to get paid in the cryptocurrency.

Kevin Lee recently spoke to The Schmo on his Schmozone podcast where he discussed the new payment system as well as fighting for Khabib Nurmagomedov’s MMA promotion. Lee sees big things in his future regarding bitcoin.

“Yeah, I’ll be the first athlete paid in bitcoin,” Lee said on being the first MMA fighter paid in bitcoin. “I think there’s been a couple of NFL guys, there’s been an NBA guy that did it too but I’ll be the first fighter to be paid in bitcoin.

“… I decided [to get paid in bitcoin]. It’s something we negotiated with them. But it was big to me. I feel the more we use these things, the more value that they’ll have. You gotta practice what you preach so if I practice bitcoin, I got to get paid in it and I want to start paying people in it and I want to do the whole she-bang.”

It will be interesting to see if this payment structure changes things in MMA. NFT’s are starting to grow and more managers are seeing the potential value for their clients.

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