Paulo Costa will have to wait to get his hands on Khamzat Chimaev.
UFC 294 has been reshaped before our eyes the past 24 hours, losing both of its original two headliner bouts. The main event between Lightweight titleholder, Islam Makhachev, and the challenger, Charles Oliveira, has been turned into a champion vs. champion rematch, seeing Featherweight kingpin, Alexander Volkanovski, replace the injured Oliveira. Just earlier today (Weds., Oct. 11, 2023), it was announced that Costa has been removed from his Middleweight bout with Chimaev and replaced by former Welterweight champion, Kamaru Usman.
Brazil’s “Borrachinha” has since shared that additional surgery on his staph-infected elbow is the culprit.
“This message goes to my fans,” Costa tweeted. “Unfortunately, I am hospitalized and had to do a second surgery yesterday. According to doctors, a third surgery will be necessary on Friday. So, I will not be medically cleared to fight on October 21st.
“The Abu Dhabi card still amazing I’m no happy but that’s it . I will be back before end 2023,” he concluded.
Costa has been on quite the roller coaster ride since his first career loss to Israel Adesanya in September 2020. There have been dramatic occurrences surrounding the 185-pound contender, leading to him only fighting twice post-Adesanya. He won his most recent fight against Luke Rockhold via unanimous decision at UFC 278 in August 2022 (watch highlights).
In light of this recent withdrawal, fans haven’t had the kindest things to say, leading to a less-than-savory response from Costa.
“Paulo Costa came in overweight for the Vettori fight, has pulled out against Robert Whittaker, Jared Cannonier, Ikram Aliskerov and now Khamzat Chimaev ffs,” a Twitter user said. “And he doesn’t have a single win over any active middleweights. Just cut this twitter clown already.”
“Shut up u f—k dirt mouth,” Costa replied. “I never missed weight we both agreed 205 .
“I never pulled out fight I don’t fight who I never signed up for 50 k . Staphylococcus infection is no joke u b—ch . At all I refuse pulling out this match but doctors don’t allow me to fight,” he concluded.