Nijem refused to sign new UFC deal, WADA contract: 'I didn't want to keep losing money'

Ramsey Nijem was recently released from the UFC's roster which surprised many because he most recently lost a close decision loss to Andrew Holbrook that many fans thought he should've won.

Nijem recently spoke with MMAjunkie Radio and told them that he believes he wasn't necessarily cut because of his recent losses, but because he tried to negotiate a better contract than what was offered.

"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."

Several fighters have claimed that since the Reebok sponsorship deal was implemented in July, they have lost money because they cannot advertise other sponsors inside the cage or at official UFC events.

"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-on-quote lost that last fight, which I feel like was one of the best performances I’ve had."

Since the new anti-doping policy has been put into effect earlier this summer, fighters have had to agree to give their whereabouts in advance so they can be randomly drug tested out-of-competition. This hasn't been a big issue for too many fighters, but it was for Nijem.

"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 contract and I didn’t want to keep losing money."