Former UFC middleweight championship challenger, Paulo Costa is set to become the best paid fighter from Brazil on the promotion’s books according to his manager and girlfriend, Tamara Alves – who claims the Belo Horizonte native will net $1,000,000 per fight after agreeing terms on a new mutli-fight deal with the organization.
Costa, the current #5 ranked middleweight contender, most recently featured on the main card of UFC 278 back in August of last year against former UFC middleweight champion, Luke Rockhold – scoring a unanimous decision victory over the Californian.
In the time since that victory, Paulo Costa has been linked with multiple Octagon returns, however, an expected fight against former undisputed middleweight champion, Robert Whittaker fell to the wayside in recent months, despite the promotion confirming the bout for their February pay-per-view card in Perth, Australia.
Paulo Costa is touted as the best-paid Brazilian in the UFC today
Confirming how he had reached an agreement on terms with the Dana White-led organization earlier this week on a new multi-fight deal, Costa, who earned a disclosed purse of $130,000 for his victory over Rockhold, is now set to become the best-paid Brazilian in the UFC today.
“[Paulo Costa] went from being one of the most undervalued athletes to one of the most valued athletes within the UFC,” Tamara Alves told AgFight during a recent interview.” I have no doubt that today, Paulo is the highest paid Brazilian athlete within the organization.”
“I don’t know if you know any other Brazilian athlete who earns more than $1,000,000 per fight,” Alves explained.
Previously challenging for undisputed middleweight gold on ‘Fight Island’ in 2020, Costa suffered his first professional loss in the form of a second round knockout defeat against former division champion, Israel Adesanya.
Costa also confirmed how the promotion had offered him fights against both Sean Strickland in May, and Khamzat Chimaev in October, respectively – with the promotion set to return to Abu Dhabi, UAE for their UFC 294 card toward the end of this year.