Sean Strickland calls out Paulo Costa for allegedly not signing UFC 302 contract, Costa responds

Sean Strickland and Paulo Costa seem to have differing views about the business side of their scheduled UFC 302 bout.

The former UFC middleweight champion released a ’s Body Attack Could Be Key Against Keith Thurman”>video on social media on earlier this week questioning why Costa wouldn’t sign his contract for their five-round contest on June 1 in Newark, N.J. As for the context, it’s pretty much what you would expect from Strickland — including calling Costa’s mindset into question since he lost to Israel Adesanya in his lone championship opportunity at UFC 253 in September 2020.

“Do we need to get someone for you to talk to my man,” Strickland said. “Do we need to sit you down and have you talk about your f*cking feelings? I think therapy is for weak men, [but] let me tell you something, dude, you’re being a weak f*cking man. If you can’t sack up and make this sh*t happen, we’ll get someone for you to talk to. Don’t disappoint me, don’t disappoint the fans, let me make you f*cking bleed.”

Following the release of Strickland’s video, multiple people with knowledge of the situation told MMA Fighting that the fight was still a go for the UFC’s next pay-per-view event.

Additionally, Costa responded to his opponent by implying that he has signed on the dotted line for the pivotal middleweight bout.

Strickland returns to action for the first time since dropping the middleweight title to Dricus du Plessis at UFC 297 via a super close decision, while Costa competed a month later and was on the wrong end of the scorecards against Robert Whittaker at UFC 298.