Sean Strickland agreed to fight Paulo Costa on social media, setting the stage for a showdown between the UFC middleweight stars.
Costa previously reported Strickland turned down an offer for UFC 302. Strickland subsequently indicated he sought a pay bump for fighting the one-time middleweight title challenger.
After a meeting with the UFC, Strickland reports his concerns have been addressed.
Well had a meeting with the UFC and told them that I don’t want to be rich. I want to be able to support a family after my career is done
They actually were pretty supportive, made it happen. Thank you fans!
Alright @BorrachinhaMMA you got your wish… Let’s do some bleeding.
With Strickland’s tweet, verbal agreements are in place for Strickland and Costa, a person with knowledge of the UFC’s plans told MMA Fighting. Contracts are expected to be finalized shortly, and the bout is expected to serve as the co-main event of UFC 302.
UFC 302 takes place June 1 at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. The event’s main card airs on ESPN+ pay-per-view.
After initially turning down Costa, Strickland clued fans in to his financial demands, revealing his pay to be less than $200,000 to show and $200,000 to win. He asked them how much they thought he was offered to face the Brazilian slugger on seven weeks’ notice.
Costa is two months’ removed from a decision loss to ex-champ Robert Whittaker at UFC 298, which sent him back to the drawing board after a dominant win over ex-champ Luke Rockhold at UFC 278.
Strickland initially campaigned for a rematch with current champ Dricus du Plessis, who outpointed him at UFC 297 to win the title after his improbable upset of Israel Adesanya at UFC 293.
A main event for UFC 302 has yet to be revealed by the promotion. A heavyweight bout between Jailton Almeida and Alexandr Romanov was recently confirmed for the summer fight card.
50/50 chance Costa shows up
I love this fight!
Same.
Time to turnt the secret juice up to 11
I do like this fight but, Paulo does not deserve this fight imo. Now I’m not saying Sean is some world beater but he did beat Izzy for the title and I personally thought he beat DDP as well. Paulo’s only win since a decision over Yoel in 2019 is a decision win over Rockhold who everyone else was finishing brutally. Just my thoughts, but like I said, I do like the fight as a styles matchup. If Paulo got the win it would be huge.
Those are some generous odds.
https://www.mmanews.com/news/mma-fans-react-islam-makhachev-dustin-poirier-announced-ufc-302-june
UFC 302 will be headlined by Makhachev defending the UFC lightweight championship against Poirier.
Odds
Costa: +160
Strickland: -192
I like Costa at those odds
For a guy that almost never fights and is coming off a loss, he shouldn’t get to fight someone above him. Costa fans are delusional thinking he is anything other than a journeyman.
100% agree…He can be fun to watch for sure, but go look at his resume, he should be fighting someone 8-15
I think he beats Strickland
lOOks like Bo’s Back
Jacob Malkoun, both himself and Bo Nickal have agreed to face one another at the highly-anticipated UFC 302 card on June 1.