Dana White Hits Back At Paulo Costa And Gives An Update On Nick Diaz
Dana White has hit back at Paulo Costa over his recent Twitter tirade, in which he claimed that he didn’t sign the contract to fight Jared Cannonier, and that the UFC should pay him more.
Last week, it was reported that Costa would no longer be fighting Cannonier in their scheduled middleweight bout on August 21st, and that Kelvin Gastelum would step up to replace him in the main event. The Ultimate Fighter season 17 winner also replaced ‘Borrachinha’ in the UFC Vegas 24 main event in April against Robert Whittaker, losing a one-sided unanimous decision.
Taking to Twitter, Costa said that he never signed the contract for the bout, which had not been officially announced by the UFC. The Brazilian also demanded a bigger payday, arguing that if YouTubers-turned-boxers Logan and Jake Paul can make millions, MMA fighters should also make a good amount of money.
Response To Paulo Costa
Speaking to TSN’s Aaron Bronsteter (as transcribed by BJPenn.com), Dana said that Costa is in no position to make such demands, especially when he’s coming off a second-round TKO loss to champion Israel Adesanya in his most recent fight at UFC 253.
“I don’t think that’s true, I think he did sign because we extended him, we extended his contract for [taking the fight]. But listen, don’t fight,” Dana said. “I have to offer you three fights a year. This is my situation with all these guys, I offer you three fights a year. He doesn’t have to fight, no problem, don’t fight.
“Guess what? You should’ve started a YouTube channel when you were f***ing 13 years old and built your name and everything else and you could’ve had the fight on Saturday (Sunday) night. You’re not a f***ing YouTuber, you’re a fighter and this is what you do for a living. Or you don’t, it’s up to you. And you’re in no position to be talking about crazy money after your last performance. Okay. You either want to fight or you don’t want to fight, no problem. If you don’t want to fight you can hang out and do whatever you want, when you are ready, you let me know.”
Nick Diaz’s Return
In May, Dana held a meeting with Nick Diaz over the possibility of him making a comeback, but he didn’t sound very optimistic afterwards.
“My whole thing with Nick Diaz is I just question how bad he really wants to fight,” Dana said at the time. “We got together, we had a great conversation, talked about a possible comeback for him. I just don’t know.”
In a recent interview with UFC Arabia (as transcribed by MMA Mania) however, Dana said that it’s likely that Diaz will make his much anticipated return to the Octagon before the end of the year.
“I didn’t think that it would happen, but it looks like it will. It looks like Nick Diaz will fight this year,” Dana said. “Looking promising.”
What do you make of Dana White’s comments on Paulo Costa and Nick Diaz?
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