UFC middleweight stumped as to how Paulo Costa is at No.6 in the division while he's unranked

UFC middleweight Brendan Allen has raised questions over Paulo Costa's standing in the middleweight division.

'All In' recently uploaded a tweet where he shared his bewilderment at Costa being ranked No.6 in the middleweight rankings. Allen added that despite having more wins than the Brazilian in the UFC, the 26-year-old still can't find a place in the middleweight top 15:

"How is Paulo costa 6-2 under Zuffa banner with 4 finishes all against guys who ain’t in the company anymore and ranked #6 and im 9-2 under Zuffa banner with 7 finishes and unranked"

Fellow middleweight Chris Curtis responded to Allen's tweet, calling the rankings a popularity contest:

Including his fight on Dana White's Contender Series, Allen has made 11 appearances under the Zuffa banner and has been victorious in nine of them. During his run in the promotion, 'All In' has defeated fighters like Kevin Holland, Karl Roberson and Krzysztof Jotko. He is currently on a three-fight win streak.

Costa, on the other hand, has competed a total of eight times in the UFC. 'Borrachinha' has won six of those encounters, including victories over high-skilled athletes like Uriah Hall, Yoel Romero, Luke Rockhold and Johny Hendricks.

Costa also contested for the middleweight championship against Israel Adesanya but came up short and lost via knockout in the second round.

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Paulo Costa's fight against Robert Whittaker has fallen apart

Earlier this year, the UFC announced that an exciting middleweight matchup between Paulo Costa and Robert Whittaker would take place at UFC 284 in Perth, Australia.

Costa, on multiple occasions, stated that he had not received a contract for the fight, and thus, would not be competing on the date declared by the UFC. Due to the Brazilian's humrous persona, many were confused as to whether he was serious or not.

However, it was recently announced that the fight was in fact off the UFC 284 card.

During his recent appearance on Ariel Helwani's The MMA Hour, Costa said that it was the compensation that became a hurdle in negotiations with the UFC.

"They didn't send a contract or terms or nothing. They just said, 'If you want to fight Whittaker, let's do that fight,' but I cannot do that fight, fight the No.1 or No.2 high-level guy like Whittaker for the same money that I'm getting since 2017. Not make sense."

Listen to Costa speak about the situation from the 2:53 mark below: