Paulo Costa called the UFC incompetent on X Saturday night, took a direct shot at Dana White and then deleted the whole thing before most of the internet could finish reading it.
Bloody Elbow caught the post before it vanished. It opened with this line: “The UFC seems lost-lacking focus and direction.” Then Costa went after the boss by name.
“Fight cards are cobbled together from whatever is left over, and Dana White mixes up fighters’ names; he appears more focused on boxing and his rivalry with Eddie Hearn than on the company he built,” the post read.
He closed with a heavyweight detour and a line that belongs on a movie poster. “Volkov should be fighting for the heavyweight title; great matchups aren’t happening due to sheer incompetence. After all, empires often crumble from within.”
The name mix-up jab has a receipt attached. During UFC 332 fight week, the 57-year-old White confused the records of Natalia Silva and Wang Cong, and he’s taken heat from fans over press conference answers that suggest he’s lost track of his own roster since launching Zuffa Boxing. Costa clearly kept the clip.
Not everybody is convinced Costa typed it himself. Some fans floated theories that AI wrote the post, or that someone on his management team did. Nobody has confirmed either one, and Costa hasn’t explained the deletion.
Why he’s mad
The Brazilian moved back up to 205 pounds and knocked out Azamat Murzakanov at UFC 327 in April, a win he’s been using as his case for a light heavyweight title shot ever since. Bloody Elbow describes him as a top-5 contender. The title shot hasn’t come.
Things have gotten messier from there. Costa, a former middleweight title challenger, has asked for his UFC release. He has one fight left on his current deal, and he’s refused to take a five-round fight unless the promotion pays him more for it. Most of his public anger until now had been pointed at Hunter Campbell, the UFC executive who handles fighter business. This time White took the hit.
The UFC has not responded publicly to the post.
Quick take
I like a fighter who says what he thinks about his employer, and Costa’s complaints aren’t crazy. White did blow the Silva and Wang records on a fight week mic, and asking for more money for 25 minutes of work is a reasonable negotiating position for a guy coming off a knockout. But you can’t throw a haymaker like “empires often crumble from within” and then pull it off the timeline an hour later. Either stand behind it or don’t post it. Costa has exactly one fight left on his contract, which is all the leverage he’s got, and deleting his loudest argument just let the UFC read it without having to answer it.
