Paulo Costa vs. Robert Whittaker won’t happen at UFC 284 after all.
Almost two months to the day that the promotion announced the matchup to happen at the Feb. 13 pay-per-view event, ESPN reported Monday that the bout will not take place after never being finalized.
Since the announcement, Costa (14-2 MMA, 6-2 UFC) repeatedly has said in interviews and on social media that the bout with Whittaker (24-6 MMA, 15-4 UFC) was never signed and indicated the fight would not happen.
“Great fights is going down due to lack of negotiation skills, they should stop being petty,” Costa tweeted shortly after independent confirmation surfaced Monday.
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
Costa has one fight remaining on his UFC deal and has engaged in ongoing negotiations with the promotion for a new contract.
Costa most recently competed at UFC 278 in August, when his disclosed pay was $65,000 to show and $65,000 to win for his co-main event victory over Luke Rockhold. After the fight, Costa indicated he wasn’t opposed to departing the promotion.
In a recent interview with Submission Radio, Whittaker addressed Costa’s claim the fight was not done and brushed off the notion as trolling.
“What he’s doing, he’s a notorious troll for that sort of stuff, so I’m not paying too much attention,” Whittaker said. “And I don’t think anybody else should pay too much attention to the dude that walks around with a bottle that says ‘Secret Juice’ on it.”
Whittaker subsequently confirmed the latest news on a social media video, saying that he’s been removed from the card all together and expects to return in March or April.
Status Update #UFC284 #UFCPerth @ufc @UFC_AUSNZ pic.twitter.com/dPl4q2S8nj
— Robert Whittaker (@robwhittakermma) December 19, 2022
With the change, the UFC 284 lineup includes:
- Champion Islam Makhachev vs. Alexander Volkanovski – for featherweight title
- Yair Rodriguez vs. Josh Emmett – for interim featherweight title
- Tyson Pedro vs. Mingyang Zhang
- Kai Kara-France vs. Alex Perez
- Jack Jenkins vs. Don Shainis
- Parker Porter vs. Justin Tafa
- Melsik Baghdasaryan vs. Joshua Culibao
- Jimmy Crute vs. Alonzo Menifield
- Kleydson Rodrigues vs. Shannon Ross
- Nasrat Haqparast vs. Jamie Mullarkey
- Joel Alvarez vs. Zubaira Tukhugov
