Paulo Costa openly wonders if the UFC pays Brazilian fighters less on purpose: “maybe they think, ‘Ah, these motherf*ckers live in Brazil in the jungle”

UFC middleweight contender Paulo Costa has his theory behind why he’s not being paid well.

‘The Eraser’ has been out of action since his return against Luke Rockhold in August. The bout was a must-win for the Brazilian, as he had lost two straight bouts. Prior to UFC 278, Costa had been defeated by Israel Adesanya and Marvin Vettori, respectively.

Luckily for the former UFC middleweight title challenger, he defeated Rockhold by decision. Following that victory, Costa was booked to face Robert Whittaker in February. ‘The Reaper’ is coming off a win over Marvin Vettori at UFC Paris in September.

Sadly, the matchup will not happen at UFC 284. Ever since the fight announcement, Costa has been stating that he had never signed to fight Whittaker. Furthermore, had no plans to. The Brazilian currently only has one-more bout on his promotional deal but refuses to fight the former champion without a pay increase.

On The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Paulo Costa gave a theory as to why he’s paid what he is. The Brazilian opined that it’s possible the promotion pays him less, due to his nationality. As he admitted, Costa did take less money than he deserved earlier in his career.

However, that won’t be the case anymore, and Costa admits that his mentality resulted in some poor business decisions.

(via Zuffa LLC)

“I think they just actually offer very low numbers for Brazilian,” stated Costa on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani. “Maybe they think, ‘Ah, these motherf*ckers live in Brazil in the jungle, they don’t need real money because the currency is like 5x less than dollars, so let’s pay bullsh*t.'” (h/t Shaheen Al-Shatti)

He continued, “The mentality of Brazilians is, ‘OK, I agree, let’s do [it].’ I did that. And I know the Brazilians do that a lot. … But this is horrible for the business… [There’s] an easy way to make the fight happen. I can fight in March. Hey Hunter [Campbell], if you want that fight, if you want me to fight Whittaker, just send a contract with fair numbers.”

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