Paulo Costa has expressed his willingness to compete in the UFC heavyweight division as he heads into the final fight of his contract with the MMA promotion. <\/p>\n
Paulo Costa appears to have expressed his disappointment with the UFC<\/a> over what he implied is a delay in them booking his next fight.\u00a0<\/p>\n The one-time UFC middleweight title challenger asserted that he has just one fight left on his UFC deal and would like to complete it at the earliest.<\/p>\n His latest assertion comes amid ongoing speculation about whether he’d choose to re-sign with the UFC or compete elsewhere. Costa had, notably, teased a possible move to MVP MMA on Netflix after the platform hosted the MVP MMA: Rousey vs. Carano event in May.\u00a0<\/p>\n Paulo Costa criticizes UFC over supposed delay in booking his contract’s final fight, ready to compete at heavyweight and in other divisions<\/p>\n Paulo Costa’s most recent octagon appearance witnessed him defeat Azamat Murzakanov via third-round TKO. Their light heavyweight matchup co-headlined UFC 327 back in April. It marked the then-unbeaten Murzakanov’s first MMA loss.\u00a0<\/p>\n Taking to X, Costa has now drawn attention to the fact that he’s been lobbying for the UFC to book his next fight ever since.\u00a0<\/p>\n The longtime UFC star wrote, “Since I defeated Azamat in April, I have been looking for the next fight. I’ve eventually opened the door to fight at heavyweight. UFC told me to wait…wait…”\u00a0<\/p>\n Having competed mainly at middleweight, and lately making a mark at light heavyweight, Costa continued:\u00a0<\/p>\n “Here we are it’s already July and I still looking to fight someone else at light heavyweight, middleweight or even heavyweight but the answer from @ufc by Hunter Campbell is the same : “Wait”. I want to fight I don’t want to wait.”\u00a0<\/p>\n The Brazilian fighter took aim at UFC CBO Hunter Campbell and added, “I have just one more fight at my contract and I want this fight happen soon, but for some reason They don’t.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Since I defeated Azamat in April, I have been looking for the next fight. I ve eventually opened the door to fight at heavyweight. UFC told me to wait\u2026wait\u2026 \u2014 Paulo Costa (@BorrachinhaMMA) June 29, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Moreover, a fan suggested that Costa deserves a fight against Ciryl Gane<\/a>, to which “The Eraser” seemed to lightheartedly indicate that he wouldn’t want to face Gane. Costa wrote, “I don’t want it kkkklol.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Gane, who’s a two-time interim UFC heavyweight champion and in his second stint as the division’s interim champion, sparked controversy in his second-round TKO victory against Brazil’s Alex Pereira<\/a> at UFC Freedom 250 on June 14.\u00a0<\/p>\n The French fighter was accused of landing several illegal strikes, back-of-the-head shots, against Pereira. The latter and many others in the MMA world later criticized Gane and Referee Herb Dean over the illegal strikes debacle.<\/p>\n They also cited Gane’s history of landing apparently illegal strikes — including back-of-the-head shots against Junior Dos Santos, Tai Tuivasa, and more.\u00a0<\/p>\n Well, Costa seemed to allude to Gane’s reputation as a dangerous fighter and jestingly replied to the aforementioned fan’s suggestion that he fight Gane.\u00a0<\/p>\n I don\u2019t want it kkkklol<\/p>\n \u2014 Paulo Costa (@BorrachinhaMMA) June 29, 2026<\/a> The UFC 330 event will be headlined by reigning welterweight kingpin Islam Makhachev<\/a>, who’ll attempt to make his first defense of the 170-pound belt against Ian Machado Garry.<\/p>\n The much-awaited event will transpire on August 15, and many expected it to also feature a light heavyweight clash between ex-UFC light heavyweight champion Jiri Prochazka and Paulo Costa.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some even speculated that with reigning UFC light heavyweight champion Carlos Ulberg on a hiatus<\/a> due to knee injury issues, the potential Prochazka-Costa fight<\/a> could have an interim title at stake.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, Costa’s latest X posts make it seem as though his rumored clash against Prochazka hasn’t been booked yet and is unlikely to materialize at UFC 330.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paulo Costa has expressed his willingness to compete in the UFC heavyweight division as he heads into the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":769888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,19961,29968,786,60150,785,6401,85,787,364409],"class_list":["post-769887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-azamat-murzakanov","tag-ciryl-gane","tag-fighting","tag-jiri-prochazka","tag-mma","tag-paulo-costa","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-330-makhachev-vs-machado-garry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769887","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=769887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/769888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Here we are it\u2019s already July and I still looking to fight someone else at Lightheavyweight, middleweight or even\u2026<\/p>\n
\nJiri Prochazka vs. Paulo Costa — potential light heavyweight clash seems unlikely for UFC 330<\/p>\n