Paulo Costa (image via UFC/Twitter)

By FCF Staff

A pivotal, middleweight fight between Paulo Costa (14-2) and former champ, Robert Whittaker (24-6), will reportedly not be part of UFC 284.

The fight had been expected to take place at the UFC’s February 11th card in Perth, Australia. Recently, however, Costa reported that he has not agreed to the bout yet. The Brazilian fighter currently has one fight left on his UFC contract.

More recently, ESPN’s Brett Okamoto reported that according to sources, the fight is no longer planned for UFC 284.

Costa also seems to have criticized the UFC, while commenting on the report.

Great fights is going down due to lack of negotiation skills, they should stop being petty 👍🥤 pic.twitter.com/uAfFLnTOdN

— Paulo Costa ( Borrachinha ) (@BorrachinhaMMA) December 19, 2022

Featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski is scheduled to challenge lightweight champ, Makhachev in the main event.