Melquizael Costa grew up selling popsicles in the streets of Porto de Moz, Brazil, before starting a career in martial arts. Now fighting in the UFC, \u201cThe Dalmatian\u201d looks back at the lessons learned on those early days as to why he shouldn\u2019t ask for a spot on the historic UFC White House card.<\/p>\n
Costa is making a name for himself in the featherweight division with five straight victories in the UFC, going 4-0 in 2025 alone, and booked his first assignment for the year against ranked 145-pound veteran Dan Ige at Saturday\u2019s UFC Houston. Costa calls the Ige fight \u201cthe people\u2019s main event,\u201d and a win should open the door for much bigger opportunities next.<\/p>\n
Costa doesn\u2019t want that to be on the south lawn of the White House on June 14, though.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was a popsicle seller, everyone went to school at recess time,\u201d Costa told MMA Fighting. \u201cI went on the first day too and sold two popsicles. I thought, \u2018If everyone is at school at this time, there\u2019s no one on the street.\u2019 So instead of going to the schools, I went to the streets and started selling more. At the White House, I\u2019ll be just another guy. In a main event in Brazil, I\u2019ll be the guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The UFC has yet to announce plans for a card in Brazil in 2026, but Costa expects to make himself the go-to name for a Fight Night headliner with a win on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, after this fight I was thinking about a fight with Aljamain Sterling, but that\u2019s not an exciting fight for the public,\u201d Costa said. \u201cThere are only two names. I\u2019m going to jump the line, there\u2019s no way around it. They\u2019ll have to deal with it [laughs]. I\u2019ll have to face two guys: either Diego Lopes, who went three rounds with [Ige], or, if [Alexander] Volkanovski doesn\u2019t give Jean Silva a shot, then it has to be Jean Silva here in Brazil, main event.<\/p>\n
\u201cEither one, Diego Lopes or Jean Silva, has to be here in Brazil. Everyone wants to fight at the White House. I don\u2019t care. I prefer to fight here in Brazil.\u201d<\/p>\n
In fact, Costa predicts he will fight three times in 2026 \u2014 \u201cand the last one will already be for the belt.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe Jean can beat Volkanovski,\u201d Costa said. \u201c[Movsar] Evloev doesn\u2019t win, Lerone Murphy doesn\u2019t win. And I\u2019m rooting for that. I really want to fight Volkanovski, but I\u2019d cut the line even quicker if Jean wins.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe math will be simple,\u201d he continued. \u201cI\u2019ll beat Dan Ige. I\u2019ll knock out Dan Ige, who went three rounds with Diego Lopes. Then I\u2019ll beat Diego Lopes, who knocked out Jean Silva. And Jean Silva, beating Volkanovski \u2014 like, \u2019I beat his dad, it\u2019s just the two of us now [laughs]\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ige is up first and the focus is on him, Costa said. The original plan was to face David Onama, but Costa said he allegedly asked the UFC for more time to prepare for his octagon return. Instead of adjusting dates, Costa was matched up against Ige for the main card of the upcoming show at the Toyota Center.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to introduce the fans to the next UFC champion,\u201d Costa said about his plans against Ige. \u201cThe division is pretty messy, and I\u2019m going to fight a tough guy, and I\u2019m going to knock out Dan Ige. Dan Ige has never been knocked out. This will be the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cDan Ige went three rounds with Diego Lopes taking the fight on the same day, last minute, and Diego had a lot of work to crack that nut. It\u2019ll be a fight that will likely be very bloody or it\u2019ll be quick, one of the two, but either way the people will enjoy it. And I\u2019m going to knock out Dan Ige. It\u2019ll be unprecedented. He\u2019s never been knocked out or submitted, so it\u2019ll be knockout or submission. I don\u2019t see this fight going the distance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melquizael Costa grew up selling popsicles in the streets of Porto de Moz, Brazil, before starting a career…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396],"class_list":["post-495273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}