A light heavyweight scrap between Jan Blachowicz and Paulo Costa was looking good to go for UFC 288 … until Jan says Paulo changed his mind.
For a hot second it looked like we might have an exciting scrap between Jan Blachowicz and Paulo Costa added to UFC 288 on May 6th. The card was in need of a pump up after Charles Oliveira pulled out of his fight with Beneil Dariush due to injury, and Costa had challenged Blachowicz to a light heavyweight scrap.
Unfortunately, nothing came of the offer. The UFC went on to book a five round Gilbert Burns vs. Belal Muhammad welterweight contenders match for their new UFC 288 co-main. According to Blachowicz, his potential fight with Costa fell apart because “Borrachinha” turned down the fight. The fight that he suggested in the first place.
Jan Blachowicz explained what went down in a new interview with Polish MMA site Lowking.
“Friday afternoon, the question comes if I want to fight Costa,” Jan said. “I say ‘one moment, one moment,’ because in my case it meant a very strong reorganization of my life. I had to really do a lot – if he had agreed at that moment, as I agreed, because I agreed to this fight, I would already be in the States by now. I’d already be there, I’d be training, I’d be catching the vibe.
“I reorganized the lives of people who were supposed to fly with me, myself, my manager Dorota. I had to do a lot. The kid, her, the people around me. And I managed to do it. I say ‘Ookay, but now let the dollars do the talking.’ That was Dorothy’s job. Let the dollars do the talking if we take the fight. Dollars have also spoken. I say ‘Hey, adventure!’ I feel good, I’m in training. It’s OK, we’re taking this fight, why not.”
But then the fight plans came crashing down.
“Sunday, probably evening, I’m starting to go to bed, Dorota comes in and says that Costa does not want this fight,” Blachowicz said. “So I canceled everything, people went back to their ways of life again. And now he’s screaming something on the Internet again that he wants to fight me. I don’t quite understand his train of thought.”
“I don’t know if he was drunk, at that moment he sobered up and he lost his vision? I don’t know what’s in his head. I’m not sitting there. Weird dude, weird type. There will be no more of this fight.”
We have to wonder whether this is a case of Costa turning down the fight or the UFC passing on it as they’d already secured Burns vs. Muhammad to seal the hole in their upcoming pay-per-view card. Costa recently signed a new UFC deal that he says makes him the highest paid Brazilian on the roster.
He’ll have to wait until October before he gets a taste of that new money, though. The UFC has made it clear they want him to fight Khamzat Chimaev on the Abu Dhabi card, and don’t seem interested in booking him in the six months leading up to then.
Whatever the case, we’ll have to move on with no Blachowicz vs. Costa in our lives. It doesn’t sound like Blachowicz is interested in re-booking the fight after the whiplash he just experienced. And Costa has his plate full in the fall.