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The MMA Daily: Paulo Costa eyes jump to boxing as his ‘miserable’ UFC contract draws to an end

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The MMA Daily: Paulo Costa eyes jump to boxing as his ‘miserable’ UFC contract draws to an end
Paulo Costa speaks to the media following his UFC 278 win on August 20, 2022, at the Vivint in Salt Lake City, UT. (Photo by Amy Kaplan/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

It looks as if Paulo Costa intends on fighting out his UFC contract.

If the Brazilian is to be believed, his fight opposite Robert Whittaker at UFC 284 in Australia will be the last of his current deal, despite the fact that he said something similar prior to his UFC 278 brawl with Luke Rockhold.

“I have one more, I didn’t know,” Costa clarified regarding his past statement on the MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani a few months back. “I thought [it] was the last one but I have one more.”

“I’m looking forward to being a free agent for sure, I will not lie to you. … I’m on a high, high level, fighting the best of this division and my contract is too old. When I fought Marvin Vettori, I got $35,000. $35,000. For [the Luke Rockhold fight] it was a couple more, a couple more. I got the win bonus, and because when I fought Marvin Vettori, I need to be fair of course, I got a 20% reduction… I need to talk with them and see. I’m not rushing up to see, but we need to see, we need to figure it out. I’m not happy with the current contract, of course.”

In the time since that interview, it looks as if Costa’s relationship with the UFC brass has deteriorated even further. According to a recent post on Costa’s Twitter, it looks as if the former middleweight title challenger is eyeing a different sport entirely.

Following that post, Costa took to Instagram to share an image of himself and YouTube celebrity boxer Jake Paul, hinting at where his sights may be set.

The AllStar MMA roundup

  1. UFC 281: Will Israel Adesanya be obsessed with revenge against Alex Pereira at UFC 281?
  2. Roxanne Modafferi: My experience as a UFC fighter in Abu Dhabi
  3. Feature: Are UFC fans inconsiderate? ‘You lose. You suck’

The best of the rest

  1. Makhachev says ‘no plans’ for Chimaev to train with Team Khabib – BloodyElbow.com
  2. Frankie Edgar reveals reasons behind decision to retire after UFC 281: ‘I know I can’t fight forever’ – MMAFighting.com
  3. Cris Cyborg: Everyone calls Amanda Nunes women’s MMA GOAT, but ‘it’s not just about one fight’ – MMAJunkie.com
  4. ‘It’s a testament to his arrogance’ — Aljamain Sterling blasts ‘delusional’ T.J. Dillashaw for fighting injured – BloodyElbow.com
  5. T.J. Dillashaw responds to ‘borderline fraud’ accusation: ‘Like I’m not being thrown under the bus enough’ – MMAFighting.com

The soapbox

O’Malley voices his opinion on a scrap with Henry Cejudo:

Chito plays matchmaker:

And goes scorched earth on Henry Cejudo:

Gilbert Burns is patiently waiting:

Valentina Shevchenko’s mom can probably beat you up:

Some interesting antitrust law news that may have relevance to the UFC:

T-wrecks explains why he’s fighting a debutant:

Dricus isn’t worried about Till’s eye injury:

Sean Strickland spars Full Send reporter Shawn McDonald:

Paddy Pimblett’s diet starts tomorrow:

That one time Rampage Jackson met the head of the Yakuza:

The morning view

Award-winning coach Eric Nicksick breaks down Carla Esparza vs Zhang Weili:

JHK catches up with Andre Petroski ahead of UFC 281:

Dan Hardy breaks down this weekend’s UFC main event:

Israel Adesanya releases episode 2 of his UFC 281 fight camp vlog:

Done deals

Thursday

  • Thiago Moisés to fight Guram Kutateladze at UFC 283 on January 21st (per Carlos Antunes)
  • Alex Caceres to fight Julian Erosa at UFC Vegas 66 on December 17th (per Iridium Sports)
  • Juancamilo Ronderos to fight Clayton Carpenter at UFC event on February 18th (per Carlos Legaspi)
  • Joe Solecki to fight Benoît St.Denis at UFC event on February 18th (per Guillaume Peltier)

Wednesday

  • Jailton Almeida and Shamil Abdurakhimov rebooked for UFC 283 on January 21st (per Marcel Dorff)

Tuesday

  • Tyson Pedro to fight Zhang Mingyang at UFC 284 on February 11th (per Chris Presnell)
  • Ismael Bonfim will fight Terrance McKinney at UFC 283 on January 21st (per MMA Fighting)
  • David Onama to fight Jarno Errens at UFC Vegas 67 on January 14th (per Marcel Dorff)
  • Yusaku Kinoshita to fight Adam Fugitt at UFC Seoul on February 4th (per Nolan King)
  • Jack Jenkins to fight Don Shainis at UFC 284 on February 11th (per Iridium Sports)
  • Dan Argueta will fight Isaac Dulgarian at UFC Vegas 67 on January 14th (per Mathias Meade)

Monday

  • Ion Cutelaba to fight Kennedy Nzechukwu at UFC Vegas 65 on November 19th (per MMA Junkie)

Roster Watch

Fighters removed this week:

  • Jason Witt
  • Darian Weeks
  • Cameron VanCamp
  • Jesse Ronson
  • Charlie Ontiveros
  • Majored Mustafaev
  • Louis Cosce
  • Misha Cirkunov

Fighters Added this week:

  • None to note

Credit to UFC Roster Watch

On this day in MMA…

On the 3rd of November, 2018, Israel Adesanya extended his undefeated streak in MMA to 15-0 at UFC 230 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Adesanya faced Strikeforce veteran Derek Brunson, in what was ‘Stylebender’s fourth bout under the promotion, to kick off the pay-per-view main card.

In a performance of the night-winning effort, the relative newcomer made short work of what was slated to be his toughest test to date in Brunson. It took Adesanya less than a round to make good on his promise to ‘fuck him up.’

Precise knees and strikes ended the contest in a brutal fashion at the 4:51 mark of the opening frame, marking Brunson’s second loss in a row.

Chris Ferguson is a combat sports reporter hailing from the land down under in Australia. He runs short-format interviews with mixed martial arts prospects hailing from the Oceanic region, as well as a weekly newsletter on Substack, breaking down every debuting fighter on each coming weekend’s UFC card. Catch his hot takes on Twitter @CFerg_mma.

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