Paulo Costa shares brutal meme hinting at reason why Rob Whittaker fight was cancelled

Paulo Costa has shared a meme on social media perhaps giving fans a hint as to why his fight with Rob Whittaker was cancelled.

The Brazilian was due to touch down in Australia in February to take on hometown hero Whittaker at UFC 284.

But just months out from the mouth-watering middleweight contender bout, it was scrapped – much to the disappointment of fans across the globe.

At the time, the reasons for the cancellation remained unknown with some speculation suggesting there was a breakdown in money talks between Costa and his employer.

That was never categorically confirmed, although Borrachinha's latest tweet indicates that could very well be the case.

Costa took to Twitter to post a meme mocked up from the popular television show Pawn Stars.

The caption read: "Paulo Costa: Give me one mill to fight Robert Whittaker."

But the Brazilian had photoshopped Dana White's face onto Rock Harrison's head, who is the main character from the show and a notoriously-tough negotiator.

"Best I can do is $70k," Dana White's character then says in the meme.

Basically, what Costa is trying to insinuate is that the UFC low-balled him pretty hard when it came to his fight purse in Perth.

Fighter pay has been a contentious issue and a hot topic within the sport for some time now with a number of athletes coming out and having their say.

As for Costa, though, his most recent war with Luke Rockhold at UFC 278 saw him earn $130,000, which broken down was $65,000 to show up and an additional $65,000 as a win bonus.

Costa's transformation in the eyes of MMA fans has been nothing short of remarkable.

A few years back, while he was preparing to fight Israel Adesanya for a UFC championship, he wasn't particularly well-liked with his image outside the octagon taking a beating.

But since then, things have changed and - for whatever reason - he has become one of the UFC's most loveable characters.

That sudden U-turn, it seems, is mainly down to his hilarious social media presence.

If you don't follow Costa on Instagram or Twitter, then you seriously should – his memes and comments are pure gold.

Never afraid to bite his tongue, or stop his fingers from typing shall we say, he's pretty much gone after everyone in the mixed martial arts community.