Paulo Costa wasn’t walking out for his fight with Iskram Aliskerov– it was never going to happen. This has come straight from the source himself after his fight with Khamzat Chimaev became public knowledge. Just last week, the UFC revealed that the fight slated for July 29th was off. Instead, “the Eraser” squares off with Chimaev at UFC 294.
Ikram Aliskerov is now going to face Nassourdine Imavov on the same card after a stunning debut win against Phil Hawes.
Paulo Costa: The Aliskerov Fight Didn’t Make Sense
Although many in the MMA media space were puzzled when this fight was made, the UFC promoted it as a big test for Aliskerov and a chance for Costa to bounce back after a slate of recent injuries. As it turns out, the outspoken Brazilian knew all along he wasn’t going to be fighting Aliskerov this Saturday.
““It was like a 99% of chance of not happening,” Costa told The MMA Hour. “It was kind of, ‘let’s see’. We have this, we don’t have any, any other fighter available to fight you now, something like that.”
He continued to add that he knew the fight was off five to six weeks before this Saturday, and yet the UFC continued to promote it. This comes as a stunning move for the promotion who have been known to back off promoting fights that they do not think will draw very well, and double down on fan-favorites. If the fight was well and truly canceled, the UFC would have no reason to promote it.
However, it didn’t bother Costa, who sees his job in the UFC as consisting of one facet: fighting.
“I’m a fighter for UFC, you know? It’s not boring me or annoy me,” Costa said of the pre-fight promotion. “I just think this kind of the company and can do, they do this, so I’m good. I’m aware of that. I knew that actually kind of five weeks ago, six weeks ago. Long time ago. Yeah, long time.”
Costa’s Message for Aliskerov
Like most of the mixed martial arts world, Costa has high praise for Aliskerov, but believes he needs to put in a better body of work before he can ascend to the top. ““I think he’s a very talented kid,” Costa said of Aliskerov. “I didn’t take too, too [much] time watching his fights. I just watch his fight on UFC against Phil Hawes… But no disrespect to him, I just think he needs to do more steps to fight the big names.”
Aliskerov is one of many Russian prospects looking to make noise in the UFC, and he did just that with his commanding finish of Phil Hawes in the first round. A talented grappler, the Russian put Hawes out cold with punches in his promotional debut, sending shockwaves through the division.
As for Costa, he struggled to find a fight, even in the middleweight top ten, where many of the fighters were struggling to put a streak together. ““And they say, we have no other fight available to fight you. I say, yes, you have, we have [Sean Strickland or [Jared] Cannonier. They say, we have all the plans for you guys not to compete against each other. So I was waiting for some fight. And then they suggest [Jan] Blachowicz at 205, around May. I say, okay, let’s do that. But, Blachowicz was not training. He was on vacation. So they ask, [Magomed] Ankalaev, he told UFC he was not training as well. He has no time because was on short notice, like two weeks to fight,” he told Helwani.
As people began to question why Paulo Costa wasn’t walking out to the Octagon any time soon, this seems to line up. Costa had been looking for fights again and again, and an injury or promotional logjam seemed to always get in the way. This time, however, we will see if the fight actually takes place, or if Costa joins yet another member of the middleweight roster who never seems to fight.
How do you feel Paulo Costa vs. Khamzat Chimaev goes down? Let us know!
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
