A middleweight fight between Robert Whittaker and Paulo Costa has been announced for UFC 298 on February 17th in Anaheim, California.
A former 185lb champ, Whittaker is coming off a 2nd round TKO loss to Dricus du Plessis at UFC 290 in July, leaving him ranked No.3 in the division.
That was the 33-year-old Whittaker’s second loss in his last three fights, having also been unsuccessful in an attempt to win the middleweight title against Israel Adesanya at UFC 271 in February of last year, before bouncing back with a unanimous decision victory against Marvin Vettori that September.
Meanwhile, the 32-year-old Costa hasn’t been back in the Octagon since a unanimous decision win over Luke Rockhold at UFC 278 in the summer of 2022 that leaves him ranked No.6 heading into this fight.
The Brazilian fighter had been scheduled to face Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 294 back in October, but had to withdraw due to an injury and was replaced by Kamaru Usman instead.
Prior to his win over Rockhold, Costa had lost two fights in a row against Israel Adesanya and Marvin Vettori.
Whittaker vs. Costa joins a UFC 298 fight card that will be headlined by featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski vs. Ilia Topuria, while it’s also been announced that a recently unveiled match-up between Ian Garry and Geoff O’Neill that was initially meant for UFC 299 has now moved to this event instead.
