Paulo Costa reveals his contract with the UFC is yet to expire but admits he's "looking forward" to free agency

Paulo Costa has one fight left on his current UFC contract, and the popular UFC middleweight is excited to see what he's worth once he becomes a free agent.

Costa went into UFC 278 telling the press that his fight against Luke Rockhold was the last on his current UFC contract. That turned out to be incorrect. In a new interview with The MMA Hour, 'Borrachinha' said he made a mistake and he still has one fight left. He also shared how little he's making right now.

"Yes. I'm looking forward to being free agent for sure ... I'm at the high high level, fighting the best in this division and my contract is so old. Too old. And when I fought Marvin Vettori, I got $35,000. For this one [at UFC 278], is a couple more, I got the win bonus and because when I fought Marvin Vettori, I got 20% deduction [for missing weight] ... I need to talk, to see with [UFC], and see. I'm not rushing up to sign, but we need to see. We need to figure out. I'm not happy with the current contract, of course."

Watch Paulo Costa discuss his UFC contract situation on The MMA Hour below:

It is crazy to learn that Paulo Costa was paid so little to fight Marvin Vettori in the main event of a UFC Fight Night. Even if he made twice or three times as much to face Luke Rockhold at UFC 278, it's still too little.

Costa was the co-main event of a pay-per-view that generated tens of millions of dollars for the UFC, and it sounds like he barely made six figures. This is the most outrageous UFC pay news since Paddy Pimblett was paid $12,000 to show and $12,000 to win for his UFC London fight in March.

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Paulo Costa has been unhappy with his UFC pay for a while now

In June of 2021, Paulo Costa turned down a UFC Fight Night main event bout against Jared Cannonier. On social media, 'Borrachinha' wrote:

"UFC needs to pay me as main fighter to have fighting in main events. Youtubers are showing all disgrace on this business. Less than $350k is a joke."

Now that we know Costa was making so little per fight, it makes sense that he's unhappy. Even his behavior coming into his fight against Marvin Vettori, where he showed up overweight, becomes more understandable. At the time, media members suspected Costa was trying to get cut by the UFC with his behavior.

In response to Costa's comments, White told TSN:

“You signed a contract, you’re under contract. If that’s the way you feel, you know what I say all the time, we have fights every weekend. If you want to be busy, you can fight every weekend if you want to. Get out of your contract, and go do whatever you want to do.”

It seems like Paulo Costa is taking Dana White up on that advice.