Jake Paul and Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) are under fire from prospect Jonathan Gabriel Pachado.
Argentina’s Pachado, age 28, fought last Friday (May 9, 2025) on the MVP Prospects 12 card in Orlando, Florida. He lost to Jeremy Adorno in the very first-round via knockout, so it’s safe to say his evening didn’t go as planned. That’s not his only reason to be upset, however, as Pachado claims that MVP failed to pay him and then didn’t pay for his plane ticket home.
“Friday I fought for [Most Valuable Promotions] and they refused to pay me the full purse,” Pachado wrote on X. “They said that the comission [sic] was the one that was gonna pay my purse when we all know that’s the promoter job. They never gave me the plane ticket to get back. Should I keep going with all they’ve done?”
He continued, “[Jake Paul] always complaing about the UFC fighters purses. Well … the minimun [sic] purse is 10k there, I got paid less than half of that. Actually, 4.5k is what was agreed but they refused to pay me what we agreed and I ONLY GOT PAID 2.5K FOR 6 ROUNDS. Disgraceful.”
This is immediately a bad look for Paul and MVP, who have time and time again taken UFC to task for failing to compensate athletes properly. However, there may be another side to the story, as MVP executive Mike Leanardi has replied to Pachado’s complaints and claimed that the reduced purse was due to a gigantic weight miss.
“Jonathan — you missed weight by 13 lbs.,” Leanardi replied. “13 lbs for a 126 lbs contracted fight. You showed no professionalism but your opponent agreed to still fight you and you agreed to give up some of your purse to him as a result. Please stop with the fake narrative.”
Unsurprisingly, Pachado doesn’t agree with Leanardi’s interpretation of the situation, which also doesn’t mention the flight home. In addition, he alleges that MVP brought him into the country under false pretenses without a visa.
Pachado wrote back, “Don’t talk about professionalism when you got me out without a valid work visa, with an immigration invitation letter stating I was going to train and spar. Don’t talk about professionalism when I had to ask someone to drive me to the airport so I wouldn’t miss my flight.”
After the defeat, Pachado’s professional record drops to 6-2.
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
