Sean Strickland is ready to move on from his Dricus Du Plessis rematch.
The former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight champion has been going through a negotiation period with the promotion after his split decision title loss at UFC 297 in January 2024 (watch highlights). Perennial top contender, Paulo Costa, has been calling for a match up against “Tarzan” since his unanimous decision loss to Robert Whittaker at UFC 298 in February 2024.
Costa, 32, stated recently that Strickland turned down an offered bout. However, things have taken a positive turn, according to Strickland.
“Well had a meeting with the UFC and told them that I don’t want to be rich. I want to be able to support a family after my career is done,” Strickland tweeted. “They actually were pretty supportive, made it happen. Thank you fans! Alright @BorrachinhaMMA you got your wish… Let’s do some bleeding.”
Per MMA Fighting, verbal agreements are now in place for the potential fight to happen at UFC 302 in Newark, New Jersey on June 1, 2024.
Classically, the Brazilian wasted no time responding to his American counterpart with a meme-erific quote tweet that can be seen below.
Let’s go COWBOY https://t.co/zEZkP5Qn4p pic.twitter.com/g1N2xwpTQh
— Paulo Costa ( Borrachinha ) (@BorrachinhaMMA) April 11, 2024
This isn’t the first time Strickland and Costa have bantered back and forth with hopes of fighting. Ultimately, Costa’s been significantly more inactive than Strickland in recent years. After setbacks to Alex Pereira and Jared Cannonier, he went on the greatest run of his career thus far, which culminated with that masterclass effort over Israel Adesanya via unanimous decision (watch highlights) at UFC 293 in September 2023.
The current line up for UFC 302 can be seen below (bout order to be determined).
- 170lbs.: Niko Price vs. Jeremiah Wells
- 185lbs.: Roman Dolidze vs. Anthony Hernandez
- 170lbs.: Mickey Gall vs. Bassil Hafez
- 170lbs.: Philip Rowe vs. Jake Matthews
- 155lbs.: Grant Dawson vs. Joe Solecki
- 135lbs.: Joselyne Edwards vs. Ailín Pérez
- 125lbs.: Park Hyun-sung vs. André Lima
- 125lbs.: Su Mudaerji vs. Joshua Van
- 265lbs.: Jailton Almeida vs. Alexander Romanov
- 185lbs.: Roman Kopylov vs. César Almeida