Paulo Costa slams UFC pay after Rampage Jackson’s $7 million claim

The newly released clip shows the UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland asks the former light heavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson of his biggest UFC payday. Jackson said he earned $7 million for the fight, including pay Chuck Liddell. Costa contrasted that number with his estimate of what a current UFC fighter is earning.

Paulo Costa compares Rampage Jackson’s claimed $7 million to Raoni Barcelos’ estimated payday earnings

Jackson tied the payday to the contract he signed with the World Fighting Alliance and said his manager also had a promotional role. According to Jackson, the deal included lucrative pay-per-view terms that the UFC inherited when its parent company acquired the WFA’s assets in December 2006.

“$7 million, Chuck Liddell, it was pay-per-view though,” Jackson told Strickland. “I left
pride. My manager, he became like a host. So he knew exactly that this was his biggest deal. They didn’t want to pay to watch, so he gave me a crazy paid deal. Then Dana White bought the WFA and had to honor my pay-per-view deal.

Costa compared Jackson’s account Raoni’s Barcelos‘ standstill loss Raul Rosas Jr. last month. Barcelos, 39, was knocked unconscious in the fifth round of the fight. Costa speculated that Barcelos earned between $80,000 and $100,000, contrasting that estimate with Jackson’s claimed earnings from his 2007 win over Liddell.

“The UFC paid Rampage 7 million to fight Chuck, which is all,” Costa wrote in X. “If you compare it not to the importance of the fighters, but to Barcelos x Rosas Jr. 5 who had serious brain damage, made 80-100 thousand ?? Raoni Barcelos is about 40 years old and probably retired because of this injury.”