UFC President Dana White had one of his typical drops tonight where he announced a ton of big time fights. One matchup that he announced this evening is a big time matchup in the middleweight division. Former champion Robert Whittaker (24-7) is going to be taking on former title challenger Paulo Costa (14-2).
The matchup will take place at UFC 298 on February 17th. The fight will be Costa’s first fight since August 2022 when he took on and defeated former champion Luke Rockhold. Costa was supposed to fight Khamzat Chimaev back in October in Abu Dhabi.
However, Costa suffered an infection in his elbow that needed surgery to fix. With that, he had to pull out of the matchup against Chimaev. He’s been cleared to return and now he’ll be facing a hungry Robert Whittaker at UFC 298.
UFC 298
After Robert Whittaker moved from welterweight to middleweight, there had only been one man in the UFC who got the better of him. That was former champion Israel Adesanya who defeated Bobby Knuckles twice. You got the feeling that no other top contender could beat Whittaker and he would always be the ultimate Gate Keeper.
However, Dricus Du Plessis shut that all down. Back in July, DDP shocked the world by stopping Whittaker in the second round. It was Whittaker’s first loss to someone not named Israel Adesanya since 2014. The former UFC champion is focused and ready to get back to his winning ways. Whittaker and Costa were supposed to fight earlier this year, but now they’ll finally get to face off in just a couple of months.