Paulo Costa needed one word. On Tuesday the Brazilian middleweight quote-posted a running list from the account @acdmma_ tallying the fallout since Dana White reportedly paid boxer Conor Benn $15 million for a single fight. His entire comment was “Ah.” The list said plenty on its own.
According to that post, Jon Jones’s negotiations to fight Alex Pereira at the White House reportedly hit a roadblock over money, and Benn’s payday was being used as a benchmark. The post also says Sean Strickland is in a pay dispute with the UFC and has specifically pointed to the Benn number while complaining about fighter pay. It describes the $15 million figure as a major talking point among UFC fighters who are questioning their own compensation. The last item says Shakur Stevenson left Zuffa Boxing after three months without fighting for the promotion, with pay reportedly an issue. The post doesn’t name sources for any of it, so read those details as reports until somebody puts a name to them.
The Jones piece already had legs before Costa touched it. On Monday, Jake Paul asked on X whether Jones could request a release the way Stevenson did, so that a Jones vs. Francis Ngannou fight could happen. “They already said they are never working with Francis. So let Jon fly and we can give the fans what they want,” Paul wrote, tagging both men. Championship Rounds flagged that Jones reposted it. A repost signs nothing, but the timing is hard to ignore if his White House money talks really are stuck.
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Strickland’s weekend in Canada
Strickland was loud all weekend. Rise of Alberta described him as a UFC champion and reported on Saturday that he spoke at an Alberta independence rally. That same night he publicly picked Mike Malott over Joaquin Buckley in a fight on the card, per Championship Rounds. Afterward White joked about Strickland being in the country at all: “How the hell did you guys even let him in this country. If he can get in here, anybody can.”
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That’s the boss getting a laugh out of a fighter who, by these reports, is fighting him over money right now. Picture how that lands with a guy who has been holding up a boxer’s check as Exhibit A.
Here’s my take. The UFC built this problem itself. If you open the checkbook that wide for a boxer on the Zuffa side, every fighter in the building can see the number, and Jones, Strickland and Costa are going to ask about it on the phone and on X until somebody gives them an answer. A Jones vs. Pereira fight at the White House is the kind of spectacle that would justify a Benn-sized purse more easily than almost anything else on the calendar. If that fight falls apart over money, the reported $15 million will be why.
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