Paulo Costa Says UFC Should Pay More for Five-Round Fights
Paulo Costa says the UFC should pay more if it wants him in a five-round fight without a title on the line. The argument matters because Costa is on the last fight of his contract, the light heavyweight champion is injured, and the promotion has already asked him to go 25 minutes without extra money or an interim belt.
Costa, 35, is 16-4 overall and 8-4 in the UFC. He is ranked No. 6 at 205 pounds after a third-round head-kick knockout of Azamat Murzakanov at UFC 327 on April 11, his first fight back at light heavyweight.
That win was supposed to set up the next step. Five months later, he still does not have an opponent.
Carlos Ulberg won the light heavyweight title on the same Miami card, then tore his ACL. The champion has pointed to 2027 for a return. Costa wanted the UFC to create an interim belt for UFC 332 in October and put him in that fight.
The company refused. Costa has said that if there is no belt, he will take a three-round fight and finish the contract.
The latest offer, he said, was five rounds without the interim title. That is the deal he is rejecting on pay.
“If they want five rounds, put the belt on the line. If they don’t, pay the equivalent.”
Costa framed it as a work issue, not a ranking debate. A five-round main event is 25 minutes. A standard UFC fight is 15. He called that a 60 percent increase in labor for the same check.
“You cannot ask people to work 60% more and pay the same. It’s so obvious.”
He has already turned down that structure once. In July the UFC asked him to replace Khalil Rountree Jr. against Magomed Ankalaev on short notice in Abu Dhabi, five rounds, same money, no interim belt. Costa said a 16-hour flight and less than two weeks’ notice did not make sense.
This week he said the same math is back on the table. “If they want me to fight five rounds and there’s no interim belt on the line, they should pay more.”
Asked whether a five-round main event already pays more than a three-round fight, Costa said no. He said the UFC wants to pay the same purse it would for 15 minutes.
That is his account of the negotiation. The UFC has not announced a Costa fight and has not publicly detailed the offer.
The division around him is not empty. Ankalaev is the No. 1 contender. Jiri Prochazka and Alex Pereira sit above Costa in the rankings. Costa has said both names interest him, with Prochazka carrying more fan appeal.
None of those bouts is booked. Costa has one fight left, and he has already said free agency is the exit if the promotion will not put a belt in front of him.
Five-round non-title fights are how the UFC builds pay-per-view and Fight Night main events when a championship is not available. Costa’s position is that the extra rounds have to come with either gold or a bigger number.
He is not claiming he is the only option at 205. He is claiming the work is longer and the pay, in his telling, is not.
No next opponent has been announced. If the UFC wants Costa for 25 minutes, he has now put the terms in public: belt or more money, and he is not taking the same purse for a longer fight just to close the contract.