CombatSports.org

Sean Strickland agreed to fight Paulo Costa on social media, setting the stage for a showdown between the UFC middleweight stars.

Costa previously reported Strickland turned down an offer for UFC 302. Strickland subsequently indicated he sought a pay bump for fighting the one-time middleweight title challenger.

After a meeting with the UFC, Strickland reports his concerns have been addressed.

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

They actually were pretty supportive, made it happen. Thank you fans!

Alright @BorrachinhaMMA you got your wish… Let’s do some bleeding.

With Strickland’s tweet, verbal agreements are in place for Strickland and Costa, a person with knowledge of the UFC’s plans told MMA Fighting. Contracts are expected to be finalized shortly, and the bout is expected to serve as the co-main event of UFC 302.

UFC 302 takes place June 1 at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. The event’s main card airs on ESPN+ pay-per-view.

After initially turning down Costa, Strickland clued fans in to his financial demands, revealing his pay to be less than $ 200,000 to show and $ 200,000 to win. He asked them how much they thought he was offered to face the Brazilian slugger on seven weeks’ notice.

Costa is two months’ removed from a decision loss to ex-champ Robert Whittaker at UFC 298, which sent him back to the drawing board after a dominant win over ex-champ Luke Rockhold at UFC 278.

Strickland initially campaigned for a rematch with current champ Dricus du Plessis, who outpointed him at UFC 297 to win the title after his improbable upset of Israel Adesanya at UFC 293.

A main event for UFC 302 has yet to be revealed by the promotion. A heavyweight bout between Jailton Almeida and Alexandr Romanov was recently confirmed for the summer fight card.

MMA Fighting – All Posts

Response
| BJPenn.com

UFC

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.

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

MMAmania.com – All Posts

submitted by /u/MarbledNightmare [link] [comments]

MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

UFC 300 is finally here!

Arguably the greatest fight card ever assembled on paper, UFC 300 is headlined by a light heavyweight title fight between Alex Pereira and Jamahal Hill. The fight card also features a strawweight title bout between Weili Zhang and Yan Xiaonan, AND a “BMF” title bout between Justin Gaethje and Max Holloway. On top of that, there are SEVEN other former UFC champions on the card and a two-time Olympic gold medalist. This is the weekend everyone has been waiting for all year, and the No Bets Barred boys are ready for a deep dive into every one of the amazing fights this Saturday in Las Vegas.

Conner Burks and Jed Meshew open the show with a brief recap of UFC Vegas 90 before diving into this one in a lifetime card. Is Jamahal Hill rushing back too soon for this fight or is Alex Pereira in for a world of trouble? Can Weili Zhang keep rolling against her countrywoman, or will Yan Xiaonan level up? Who will survive the war between Justin Gaethje and Max Holloway? All this and a lot more are discussed on this week’s episode.

Tune in for episode 85 of No Bets Barred.

New episodes of the No Bets Barred podcast drop every Wednesday and are available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you find your favorite podcasts. The latest episode can be heard below.

MMA Fighting – All Posts

UFC

submitted by /u/MarbledNightmare [link] [comments]

MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Max Holloway has some pointed words for Ilia Topuria.

On Saturday, Holloway faces Justin Gaethje at UFC 300 for the “BMF” title bout. Though the bout is at 155 pounds, the former featherweight champion made it clear he’s not done with 145 pounds, telling reporters he wants to keep his options open. He also threw some shade at newly crowned featherweight champion Ilia Topuria.

“We’ll see what happens,” Holloway said at the UFC 300 media day. “In this sport, having options is always good. First thing’s first is Justin Gaethje, but there’s a fun fight down there. The man keeps talking, and I keep hearing. My only advice to that guys is when the contract comes up, sign on the dotted line. Don’t make no excuses.”

Topuria won the title by knocking out Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298 in February. Even before that, he dismissed Holloway as a potential title challenger, saying it wouldn’t make sense to fight someone who lost to Volkanovski three times.

Holloway has his own thoughts about what doesn’t make sense, suggesting Topuria already ducked him during his rise in the ranks.

“Questionable,” Holloway said when asked about Topuria. “That’s it. Questionable. Everybody keeps asking me, what do I think of Topuria? He’s questionable. I’ll fight him. Go ask him that question. Ask him that question about me. At the end of the day, UFC, I always want to fight for the title, I always want to do this, a lot of contenders, they gave me a lot of up and coming contenders, and there’s one that didn’t come my way. You can ask UFC about that, you can ask him the question.”

But any matchup between Holloway and Topuria comes later. For one thing, Topuria appears to be destined for a rematch with Volkanovski later this year. For another, Holloway has to deal with Justin Gaethje this weekend. The last time Holloway attempted to jump up to 155 pounds and win a title, he lost a decision to Dustin Poirier.

But this time around, Holloway said things are different.

“That Dustin fight, it is what it is,” Holloway said. “My manager was calling me ‘Muffin Top Max’ that whole camp. At the end of the day, that’s what it was. For this fight, we wanted to put on the right weight, we wanted to be smart, we wanted to be strong, but we still wanted to be fast. I think we found a very even ground, and you guys get to see come Saturday night. …

“They came with an opportunity, and opportunities like that, you do not say no,” Holloway continued. “It was just a time thing. With the [Dustin] one, it was like six weeks, and if you count down the two weeks you come down from training camp, that’s like four weeks. At the end of the day, real fighters stay ready, like I always say. I feel like I was ready.

“If you go watch that Dustin fight, there’s a couple things I had to change, and the outcome is different. Now, we had 10 weeks. … You guys get to see the difference. A lot of people like looking in the past, like searching for stuff, they keep forgetting what’s right in front of them. You guys are going to see come Saturday night.”

UFC 300 takes place on Saturday at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and is headlined by a light heavyweight title fight between Alex Pereira and Jamahal Hill.

MMA Fighting – All Posts

UFC