"He can fight his way out of his contract" - Dana White reacts angrily to Paulo Costa's pay complaints
This is not the first time Dana White is dealing with pay complaints from UFC fighters. However, his response to pay-related dissatisfaction on the part of the fighters does not seem to have changed.
Paulo Costa, who was scheduled to fight Jared Cannonier on the August 21 UFC Fight Night card, pulled out of the bout last week. Kelvin Gastelum replaced Paulo Costa for the main event contest after stepping in for him on the April 17 card against Robert Whittaker.
As a reason for not fighting, Paulo Costa cited a pay dispute and also stated that he never signed the contract, but the UFC still went ahead and announced the fight.
Needless to say, the UFC president did not take to these comments too kindly. In a recent interview with TSN's Aaron Bronsteter, Dana White reacted to Paulo Costa's statement, and his disdain for the matter was quite palpable.
"I don't know. I don't think that's true. I think he did sign because we extended him, we extended his contract for turning down the fight... This is my situation with all these guys. I offer you three fights a year. He doesn't have to fight. No problem, don't fight. You should've started a YouTube channel when you were f***ing 13 years old and built your name up and everything else and you could have had the fight on Saturday night. But you didn't. You're not a f***ing YouTuber, you are a fighter, and this is what you do for a living. Or you don't! It's up to you. And you are in no position to be talking about crazy money after your last performance, okay?" Dana White said.
Paulo Costa's complaints about pay came in the wake of Jake Paul calling Dana White out once again over compensating UFC fighters poorly.
Dana White to Paulo Costa: You just came off a ridiculous, horrible performance
Dana White also took a shot at Paulo Costa comparing himself to YouTubers. The UFC chief said that it was "good for the YouTube kid [Logan Paul]" that he managed to fight Floyd Mayweather and make a lot of money out of it. However, White said that Costa was in no position to make such demands after the performance he put up in his last outing.
Paulo Costa last faced middleweight champion Israel Adesanya in a hard-earned title match at UFC 253 but failed to capitalize on it. 'Borrachinha' was completely outclassed by the champion. Costa later revealed that he fought Israel Adesanya "half-drunk" after having consumed an entire bottle of wine the night before.
Watch part of Dana White's interview below:
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