Robert Whittaker and Paulo Costa might be fighting one another.
According to Costa’s manager, Wallid Ismail who spoke to Portal Do Vale Tudo, the fight has been offered to the Brazilian and they are waiting for Whittaker’s response. He also revealed an interim title could also be on the line.
When AllAccesMMA reached out to Ismail, he confirmed the news and said Costa has signed the contract.
“Just waiting for Whittaker to confirm. Just waiting for Whittaker to sign the contract. It is a deal, we (Costa) have signed. We are just waiting on Whittaker,” Ismail said to AllAccessMMA.
A fight between Robert Whittaker and Paulo Costa certainly makes sense. They are ranked one and two at middleweight. With the champ, Israel Adesanya moving up in weight the division needs to get going.
As Ismail says, they are pushing for the fight to be for an interim title so the winner is guaranteed another crack at Adesanya after he fights Jan Blachowicz.
This is also a fight Costa has called for, ever since he lost to Adesanya but Whittaker didn’t seem too interested.
“The only real logical fight for me right now is Izzy,” Whittaker told MMA Junkie back in early November. “I’ve held this spot as (number) one twice now in the last four, five months, and that’s a fight he (Costa) just lost his contention to the title. That’s really the only fight that I am interested in at the moment. It’s very hard for me to be interested in anything else.”
Robert Whittaker is riding a two-fight winning streak after beating Jared Cannonier and Darren Till by decision. Before that, he suffered a second-round knockout to Adesanya to lose his middleweight title.
Paulo Costa, meanwhile, is coming off his first career loss as he suffered a second-round TKO loss to Adesanya at UFC 253. Before that, he had beaten the likes of Yoel Romero, Uriah Hall, and Johny Hendricks.
