Whether Paulo Costa
remains with the Ultimate Fighting Championship for the long haul
remains to be seen.
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“Borrachinha” completed the next-to-last fight on his current deal
at UFC
278, as he defeated former champ Luke
Rockhold via unanimous decision in the evening’s co-main event
at Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City on Saturday night. At the
post-fight press conference, Costa said while he is interested in
remaining with the UFC, he is keeping his options open.
“We’ve had a lot of great opportunities [that] came up,” Costa
said. “We know that boxing is going very well. We have some
companies doing very good shows, even in Brazil. Brazil has a big
show there, a fight music show. We had the most popular people in
Brazil fighting there … We have a lot of great opportunities there,
but the UFC is a great company. I’m glad to be here, but I need to
see what’s best for us.”
At the time, the Brazilian wasn’t sure if he had completed his UFC
contract or if there was one fight left, but he later confirmed in
an interview with
Ag.Fight that he does have one bout remaining on his existing
deal. Costa is either interested in competing again by the end of
the year or at the recently announced UFC 283 event in Rio de
Janeiro.
“I can fight in a couple months, maybe two months next, of course,”
Costa said. “I’d like to fight in December or end of November. But
I know we have UFC Rio in Brazil in January, so maybe I can wait a
little more. … I need to sit down and put attention and look what
is best for my future. If I have one more, let’s see what Dana
White has for me. I’m pretty sure they do an amazing job making
exciting fights happen. They know how to eat.”
Meanwhile, UFC president Dana White, though he has had his issues
with Costa in the past, is open to re-signing the former
middleweight title challenger.
“(I have) nothing but respect for both of those guys tonight,”
White said of Costa and Rockhold. “Of course we’d like to re-sign
[Costa]. We’ll see what happens.”