A previously announced middleweight bout between Robert
Whittaker and Paulo Costa
is now not likely to happen at UFC 284,
according to a report from
ESPN.
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Though the contest is still listed on the UFC’s official website,
the promotion has been unable to finalize the bout. The matchup was
initially announced in October, and the only hurdle at the time
was getting the fight cleared by the Western Australia Combat
Sports Commission.
Since then, however, Costa revealed that he was
still in negotiations with the UFC for a new contract with one
fight remaining on his current deal. As a result, “Borrachinha” had
not agreed to face Whittaker at UFC 284 because the promotion had
not yet met his financial terms, and he claimed that his contract
could potentially expire before he fulfilled the last bout.
More recently, Whittaker’s coach, Alex Prates,
acknowledged that there was a “great possibility” that the former middleweight champion would
not face Costa at UFC 284. While Prates said that Whittaker had
been in training and would be ready to face a replacement opponent,
ESPN has reported that it is unlikely that “The Reaper” will remain
on the card.
On Monday, Costa tweeted that the UFC should “stop being petty” and
compared himself to other fighters who have been unhappy with the
promotion at various points in time.
Great fights is going down due to lack of
negotiation skills, they should stop being petty 👍🥤 pic.twitter.com/uAfFLnTOdN— Paulo Costa ( Borrachinha ) (@BorrachinhaMMA)
December 19, 2022
I think they’re taking it the wrong way,
making fighters unhappy with deals isn’t very smart. It’s not only
ME, I remember: Nagnnu , OMalley , Mark hunt ect— Paulo Costa ( Borrachinha ) (@BorrachinhaMMA)
December 19, 2022
UFC 284 takes place at the RAC Arena in Perth, Australia, on Feb.
11 and is headlined by a lightweight title tilt between Islam
Makhachev and reigning featherweight king Alexander
Volkanovski.