Robert
Whittaker wants a title eliminator booking after defeating a
version of Paulo Costa
that he believe would have beaten a lot of elite middleweights.
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Costa hadn’t fought since August 2022 going into his
UFC 298 booking against Whittaker last month. In his most
recent appearance, “Borrachinha” had bounced back from a two-fight
skid with a bizarre decision win over Luke
Rockhold, who returned to action after a three-year hiatus.
While there was a lot of speculation about how Costa would fare
against Whittaker, the former champ was preparing for the best
version of his opponent to show up. And show up he did, as the
Brazilian put on a valiant effort in going the distance against
“Bobby Knuckles” despite coming up on the short side of a unanimous
decision.
According to Whittaker, Costa put on the best performance of his
career at UFC 298.
“I’m in the gym multiple times a day training for the absolute
version of Paulo Costa
and unfortunately, I got that. I got the absolute best version of
it,” the 33-year-old said on “The
MMA Hour”.
“And like, good on him but I think that was his best performance. I
think for sure that was his best performance and he gave it to me.
Bloody hell, right? Yeah, he’d come in really, really good. I think
that version of Costa beats a lot of guys, a lot of guys at the
high level. He was much faster than we anticipated. I knew from
watching his fights with Romero, like he has that doggedness in him
to not go away. He has a head on him, he can fight wars. And the
only thing that I could point out was that he doesn’t look as good
when someone’s taking the fight to him. Not that he goes away, not
that he looks for an exit, it’s just that he doesn’t look as good.
He can get pushed around a little bit, and usually he can get out
struck that way. So that was my thing going in, I was gonna fight
fire with fire.”
Whittaker is plotting a return to action in August when the
Ultimate Fighting Championship is rumored to be returning to
Australia and wants a title eliminator clash in front of his home
fans.
“There’s rumors of a UFC card coming to Australia in August. And I
think just because of how busy the division is and how everyone’s
tied up, I’d love to fight on home soil in August… Anyone that gets
me to the title, I want the next fight to be a contender fight. I
want the next fight to be the fight that puts me against the gold
so I can get that back.”
Reigning champ Dricus Du
Plessis is expected to defend his strap against Israel
Adesanya sometime this year. When asked if recently dethroned
champ Sean
Strickland makes sense for a title eliminator, Whittaker
replied in the affirmative.
“Yeah, I like that, I haven’t fought Sean before. And I know
beating Sean puts me in that conversation. So yeah, it’s all
systems go.”