‘Just Fighting The UFC About Pay, LOL’

If the UFC wants Strickland to jump into camp to fight Costa in less than two months, they’re going to have to increase his ridiculously low base pay.

Sean Strickland isn’t refusing to fight Paulo Costa at UFC 302. Sean Strickland is refusing to fight Paulo Costa at UFC 302 for less than $200,000 in show money.

That’s according to “Tarzan” himself after “Borrachinha” accused him of turning down an offer to fight on the June 1st pay-per-view in Newark, New Jersey.

“Two days ago UFC come back and say, ‘Paulo, you fight Strickland on June 1,’” Costa said during an appearance on The Coach And The Casual. “It’s a great fight. It’s a fun fight, ]more] than Cannonier, I think.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t know what happened. Strickland say no, he don’t want to fight me. Strickland, he refused to fight me, unfortunately. That’s what UFC told me. I just have this information from UFC. I think this fight would be great, I would love to fight him.”

“I never say no … I say ‘How much’ lol,” Strickland wrote on an Instagram story.

He took the conversation to X (formerly Twitter) where he said he wanted extra scratch to jump into a training camp right away, but the UFC wasn’t interested.

“Just fighting the UFC about pay lol it will get sorted soon or it’s gonna get weird man!” he wrote when asked for a fight announcement.

“Out of curiosity … what do you guys think I was offered to fight Costa on 7 weeks notice?” he asked his fans. “Base contract…..”

One person guessed $200k to show and $200k to win. Strickland replied “Close, but less lol.”

“My man it’s cut throat in here,” he said to another fan who guessed a million dollars. “99 percent of UFC fighters will never see a million their entire career.”

Strickland may have seen a million when he fought Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 297. Because he held the UFC middleweight title at the time, he got a cut of pay-per-view that probably (but not definitely) put him at seven figures for his main event fight purse. But now that he’s no longer champion, he goes back to no points and what he considers an unacceptably low base rate to show.

In Sean’s eyes, why rush back to a short camp if the UFC won’t make it worth his while?

Strickland was very vocal after Chris Curtis lost a very close decision to Brendan Allen in the main event of last week’s UFC Fight Night. “Tarzan” blames the ‘loss’ on Curtis coming off the couch last minute to fill in. No win means no win pay, just the base show amount. Hopefully he got a little bump too for stepping up on three week’s notice but you really never know. And now he’s out of action for who knows how long with a serious hamstring tear.

So you really have to look out for your own interests in the UFC, because no one else will. It’s undeniable that Sean has leveled up in star power. If he’s making less than $200k in show money as he suggested, that’s ridiculous. He deserves top money, especially to fight top contenders.

Will he get it? Sound off in the comments below and let us know how you think things will shake out.