Robert Whittaker believes Paulo Costa's claims of not signing to fight him are a publicity stunt

Robert Whittaker is hellbent on fighting at the UFC event in Perth, Australia, whether against Paulo Costa or someone else.

The former UFC champion recently made an appearance on Submission Radio where spoke about his upcoming bout, his thoughts on Alex Pereira vs. Israel Adesanya, and his opinion on Jiri Prochazka vacating the lightweight belt.

At one point during the chat, 'The Reaper' discussed Costa's claims of not having signed a contract to fight him at UFC 284, which is scheduled to take place on February 12 in Perth.

'The Reaper' stated that he was still determined to fight on that card, even if the opponent was someone other than Costa. Whittaker added that the Brazilian's comments were probably just a tactic to attract publicity:

"I signed a contract and I'm training my butt off and I'm starving myself to get down to the weight limit. Someone is getting beaten up in February. What he's doing, he's a notorious troll for sort of that stuff. So, I'm not paying too much attention and I don't think anybody should pay too much attention to the dude that walks around with a bottle that says 'Secret Juice' on it."

You can listen to Whittaker speak about Costa's claims from the 3:02 mark below:

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Robert Whittaker praises Alex Pereira for his performance against Israel Adesanya

During the same interview with Submission Radio, Robert Whittaker also weighed in on the UFC 281 main event that took place between Alex Pereira and Israel Adesanya.

Robert Whittaker commended Pereira's fight IQ for being able to bounce back after getting hurt in the first round and then eventually winning the fight:

"It was a very chess match of a fight. To see Alex, you know, get hurt the way he did in the first round and then hang in there and then steadily, he modified his gameplan and his appraoch a little bit after that first round which shows a lot of head IQ to get you there to take it from [Israel Adesanya] in the [fifth]. It was a great showing on both dudes. It was a great fight."

After their two kickboxing encounters, Pereira and Adesanya fought for the third time at UFC 281. That night, the Brazilian went 3-0 against Adesanya with a knockout in the fifth round of the fight.