{"id":890822,"date":"2026-09-10T19:00:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T19:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/890822\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T19:00:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T19:00:22","slug":"costa-requests-ufc-release-gets-shut-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/890822\/","title":{"rendered":"Costa Requests UFC Release, Gets Shut Down"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paulo Costa recently expressed his disappointment<\/a> with Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) for turning down his request to step in to save UFC 332<\/a> next month (Sat., Oct. 3, 2026) after women\u2019s Flyweight champion, Valentina Shevchenko, had to bow out with an injury (details here<\/a>), with the promotion opting to instead book a vacant women\u2019s Flywweight title fight<\/a> between Wang Cong vs. Natalia Silva.<\/p>\n

It has not gone over well \u2026 at all<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now, the hulking Brazilian bruiser has revealed that the promotion also turned down his request to be released from his multi-million dollar contract<\/a>. Costa explained to Yahoo! Sports<\/a> that he has asked for his release from his contract numerous times \u2026 even though he only has one more fight left on his current deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe already asked to be released, but they refused,\u201d Costa said. \u201cThey said, \u2018No, we\u2019re not going to release you. You need to do one more at least.\u2019 Actually, I\u2019ve been asking for this a couple of times. The most recent was like days ago. … It\u2019s not about relationships. We are professionals. Just go, show up, fight, that\u2019s it. I\u2019m very professional, they are professional as well. It\u2019s not about relationship. I\u2019m an honest guy,\u201d he added, before saying he isn\u2019t holding anything personal against the UFC higher ups, he just wants to compete against the best of the best while he can.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just say what I think,\u201d Costa added. \u201cI don\u2019t like to fake anything. It\u2019s not about a fight against them. They\u2019re doing their business and I do mine. I\u2019m looking for big fights. I\u2019m looking for big names. I think the fans want to see a great fight, a big fight. I\u2019m in this position right now to make the big fights, and I want to bring these exciting fights to the fans. That\u2019s my goal right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the caveats that Costa had in place while offering to fill UFC 332\u2019s main event void was if the promotion created an interim Light Heavyweight title while division kingpin, Carlos Ulberg, heals from recent surgery<\/a>. When the promotion refused and opted to go a different route that confused almost everyone, Costa\u2019s frustrations only grew.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sad because I think we could have given a much better fight card going on for the Salt Lake City fans,\u201d Costa said. \u201cI don\u2019t think fans are so happy, I\u2019m not happy, but it\u2019s not about me. I\u2019ve asked to fight since May. I asked them to fight in June, July, August. They told me to wait. I don\u2019t know why. Maybe because the Light Heavyweight division is a little bit uncertain, it didn\u2019t have too much fighters available.<\/p>\n

\u201dThe guys coming from losses and stuff,\u201d he added. \u201cSo, I was waiting for a fight, I was asking for a fight. They first came up with five days\u2019 short notice to fight (Magomed Ankalaev<\/a>) in Abu Dhabi. Of course I say, \u2018Come on.\u2019 Any time, give me a decent date, give me a schedule, but they didn\u2019t give me that. I asked to fight in Salt Lake City, I asked to fight everywhere. California, UFC Noche, but for some reason, UFC doesn\u2019t want to put the interim Light Heavyweight belt on the line. I think this is a disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

Costa has been fighting for the promotion for nearly a decade now and has only competed 12 times during that span, amassing a solid 8-4 record. He did work his way up to a Middleweight title fight in 2020, but he ultimately came up short against Israel Adesanya, who knocked him out in round two<\/a>. Since then, Costa has been trying to get back to another championship bout, but he has failed to do so in large part to his inactivity<\/a>, competing only six times in that six-year span since the loss.<\/p>\n

Now, it seems he has run out of patience and is determined to look elsewhere for the title fight he longs for. There are some limited options, including RIZIN, the new (and hopefully improved<\/a>) PFL-MVP promotion, as well as Scott Coker\u2019s mysterious upstart organization<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Before then, however, Costa will have to fight one more time, at least, to see his deal through with Dana White & Co. since they are adamant that is the only way he will be allowed to sign elsewhere.<\/p>\n

That said, who do you want to see Costa fight next in what could be his final UFC fight ever?<\/p>\n

\"Andrew<\/a>\"MMATo checkout the latest and greatest UFC 332 fight card click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paulo Costa recently expressed his disappointment with Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) for turning down his request to step…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":890823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,33601,638,82,702],"class_list":["post-890822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=890822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/890823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=890822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=890822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=890822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}