Free Agent Costa Responds To Paul Calling His Fight “Dogs—t”

Costa’s fight against Rockhold was the last on his UFC contract. Will he go out and try to box Jake Paul? Here’s what the Brazilian middleweight said after his big UFC 278 win.

UFC 278 wasn’t exactly the most exciting card in the history of combat sports, so when Paulo Costa and Luke Rockhold went to war for three hard rounds, it was a welcome reprieve from the dull Aldo vs. Dvalishvili fight that come before.

Was it the most technical fight? No. Both men were clearly affected by Salt Lake City’s high altitude, which wreaks havoc on cardio. That didn’t stop them from gutting it out for three hard rounds. While the fight won a $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus, YouTuber turned boxer Jake Paul wasn’t impressed with the fight.

“Bruhhhh lol Rockcock vs Paulo is embarrassing,” he wrote. “This a glorified street fight. Both ez money.”

“These people are paid for skill and that was dog s—t,” he added later.

Jake Paul has been having a tough time finding ‘ez money’ opponents since defeating all the over-the-hill retired UFC fighters out there that still have two functioning eyes. Fortunately for him, this fight against Luke Rockhold was the last fight on Paulo Costa’s contract, so “Borrachinha” is now free to entertain an offer from “The Problem Child.”

“Was it like a street fight?” a perplexed Costa asked at the post-fight press conference when he heard about Paul’s comments. “Okay, so … if this is the last [fight on my UFC contract], Jake Paul is very welcome to send an offer or contract. We can do this boxing fight. But I don’t know if he wants this blood. I think he want fight wrestlers or something like that, I think.”

“We need sit down to see maybe, you know, we have a lot of great opportunities came up,” he said regarding his contract status. “We know the box is going very well. We have some companies doing very good shows, even in Brazil. ”

Costa actually has some history with the Paul brothers. Back in March 2020 he starred in a Logan Paul video where the two wrestled and sparred. Logan didn’t look terrible in the wrestling exchange, but got faceplanted during the spar. Of course, who knows what’s real and what’s just a work for YouTube clicks in these videos.

“Borrachinha” also had a mini-meltdown in June 2021 after Ben Askren made over a million dollars to fight Jake Paul. Paul, who’s also the promoter of the event, reportedly made somewhere north of $65 million on that fight. The situation soured him so much on UFC pay that he refused to sign on for a main event fight against Jared Cannonier.

So there’s reason to believe Costa may be interested in chasing that YouTuber money. UFC president Dana White is hoping that isn’t the case, and made it clear that the promotion was looking to re-sign their growing Brazilian middleweight star despite some very apparent friction last year.

“Nothing but respect,” White said. “Nothing but respect for both of those guys tonight. And, yeah, of course we’d like to re-sign.”