Paulo Costa says Sean Strickland turned down UFC 302 fight; ex-champ alludes to reason why

A fight between Paulo Costa and Sean Strickland at UFC 302 sounds like a good idea, but apparently there’s one issue.

According to [autotag]Paulo Costa[/autotag], he was offered to fight former UFC middleweight champion [autotag]Sean Strickland[/autotag] in June.

Costa (14-3 MMA, 6-3 UFC) said the UFC came to him with the name Strickland for UFC 302 on June 1 at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., but Strickland (28-6 MMA, 15-6 UFC) rejected the fight.

“This is great stuff,” Costa said on “The Coach and the Casual podcast. “UFC suggested a fight with (Jared) Cannonier. It’s a nice fight, I love the idea to fight Cannonier, and (UFC suggested that fight) for June. But then two days ago, UFC come back and say, ‘Paulo, you fight Strickland on June 1.’

“It’s a great fight. It’s a fun fight, even (more fun) 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.”

Strickland didn’t deny that he was offered Costa but suggested on X that he wasn’t in agreement with the pay.

Strickland lost his middleweight title to Dricus Du Plessis in a tightly contested battle at UFC 297 in January. He campaigned for an immediate rematch, but it appears the promotion has other plans.

Costa is coming off an entertaining decision loss to former champion Robert Whittaker at UFC 298 in February. Prior to that, he outlasted Luke Rockhold in a Fight of the Night war at UFC 278.

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