Costa turned down six-fight deal with UFC, ‘looking forward to being a free agent’

Paulo Costa wants out of the UFC — and soon.

It doesn’t look like Paulo Costa will be re-signing with the UFC unless he gets a better deal.

The one-time UFC middleweight title challenger and MMA veteran revealed during a recent interview with Ariel Helwani that he has just one fight left on his current contract and that he looks forward to being a free agent after his next fight.

“I have one more, I didn’t know, I thought this was the last one but I have one more. I’m looking forward to being a free agent for sure, I will not lie to you. I’d (thought) this was the last one of this contract,” Costa said on The MMA Hour (h/t BJPenn.com). “I really believe it’s not just for me, it’s for everybody. I’m on a high, high level, fighting the best of this division and my contract is too old. When I fought Marvin Vettori, I got $35,000. $35,000. For this one was a couple more, a couple more, I got the win bonus, and because when I fought Marvin Vettori, I got a 20% reduction… I need to talk with them and see. I’m not rushing up to see, but we need to see, we need to figure it out. I’m not happy with the current contract, of course.”

He also rejected a six-fight contract extension with the UFC because, per Twitter, he isn’t interested in signing a multi-fight deal and wants to test the waters of free agency.

Costa’s next fight is expected to be against Robert Whittaker, but he won’t agree to the matchup until he gets better pay. The Brazilian is currently #6 in the UFC middleweight rankings, having last fought at UFC 278 where he defeated Luke Rockhold via unanimous decision.