Paulo Costa next fight: Who is the Brazilian phenom facing at UFC 298? All you need to know

Over a year since his last fight, Paulo Costa intends on returning to the octagon in February.

As originally reported in late 2023, Costa is scheduled to return at UFC 298 against former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker. Costa did not compete in 2023 despite having two fights booked against Ikram Aliskerov and Khamzat Chimaev.

The fight is the third attempt at forming the matchup after the two were rumored to compete in February 2023 and previously booked in 2021. Most recently, the UFC announced the fight was official, though Costa denied signing a contract due to pay negotiations.

Though the two middleweights have been announced to be on UFC 298, the matchup's exact placement on the card is currently unknown. Despite the fight being made official by the UFC, the matchup does not yet appear on the promotion's website.

The fight would almost certainly be on the pay-per-view main card, though the UFC currently lists Merab Dvalishvili vs. Henry Cejudo as the co-main event. UFC 298 is headlined by the featherweight title fight between Alexander Volkanovski and Ilia Topuria.

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Paulo Costa vs. Robert Whittaker preview

After a down year for both Robert Whittaker and Paulo Costa, the two top-10 middleweights will meet at UFC 298.

It will ironically be the second straight February that the two are scheduled to compete as they were initially targeted for UFC 284. Whittaker opened as the sizeable betting favorite despite losing his last outing to Dricus du Plessis.

Before losing to du Plessis, Whittaker had only lost to Israel Adesanya since moving up to middleweight. 'The Reaper' had lost his second undisputed title fight against Adesanya at UFC 271 before dominating Marvin Vettori seven months later.

Costa is coming off of a win against Luke Rockhold in 2022 but has not competed since. Availability has appeared to be the Brazilian's biggest weakness recently with five canceled fights since losing to Adesanya in 2020.

'Borrachinha' most recently pulled out of the fight with Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 294 due to an elbow surgery. Costa claimed he still wanted to fight on the card despite the injury and has said his full recovery was successful.