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Fans have established a conspiracy about Paulo Costa’s surprising change of opponents.
Earlier this week, news broke about Costa being pulled from his fight against Ikram Aliskerov on July 29 at UFC 291. Shortly after, UFC president Dana White announced ‘Borrachinha’ would be fighting Khamzat Chimaev in a highly-anticipated bout on October 21 at UFC 294.
The reason for Costa’s change in opponents wasn't revealed. To make things slightly weirder, the UFC website provided an update about UFC 291 and didn’t mention the matchup between Aliskerov and ‘Borrachina.’
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As a result, a popular Twitter account, MMA Orbit, shared this conspiracy theory on Twitter:
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“The UFC’s official #UFC291 card update has no mention of Paulo Costa being out of the fight with Ikram Aliskerov. Therefore, you would assume that Costa never signed the fight contract in the first place.”
The comment section was filled with various reactions. Two fans used the situation to make a joke: “The only thing he signed was @TracyCortezmma adoption papers” and “If I’m Dana I’m choking him out.”
Other fans started pointing fingers at who was at fault for the bout allegedly not being signed: “Why did they announce the fight if costa never signed?? Very unprofessional if that’s the case” and “This Paulo situation is an embarassment. How do you still have him on the website’s fight card and nobody knows if he’s fighting? Total nonsense..”
Last but not least, some fans backed Costa by reminding others that the UFC middleweight has continuously said he never signed a contract to fight Aliskerov: “hasn’t he been saying the whole time that he didn’t sign it lmao” and “Like he literally.. TOLD EVERYONE LOL the day it was announced by Dana.”
Paulo Costa trolls Ikram Aliskerov and fans on Twitter
Paulo Costa rarely fails to capitalize on the opportunity to troll someone on social media. Once the announcement was made about him fighting Khamzat Chimaev, Costa decided to kick Ikram Aliskerov while he was down by mocking him on Twitter.
The Brazilian UFC middleweight posted a picture of Aliskerov during his Dana White’s Contender Series appearance and captioned the photo:
“crazy to think some people believed I would fight this kid”
It didn’t take long for Aliskerov to receive his next opponent. The 30-year-old Russian will fight the number thirteen-ranked Nassourdine Imavov on October 21 at UFC 294. Although his opponent changed, Aliskerov still has an opportunity to become a ranked UFC middleweight.
