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MIAMI, FLORIDA - APRIL 11: Paulo Costa of Brazil reacts after a knockout victory against Azamat Murzakanov of Russia in a light heavyweight fight during the UFC 327 event at Kaseya Center on April 11, 2026 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Ed Mulholland/Zuffa LLC)
Paulo Costa wants the world to know he’s ready to fight and the UFC won’t hook him up.
“Borrachinha” last competed in April at UFC 327, beating the undefeated Azamat Murzakanov via third round headkick TKO in his light heavyweight debut. Costa had hoped for a quick turnaround following that fight. Instead he says he’s stuck in limbo for no reason as the UFC refuses to offer him the final fight on his contract.
“Since I defeated Azamat in April, I have been looking for the next fight,” Costa wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “I’ve eventually opened the door to fight at heavyweight. UFC told me to wait …wait … Here we are, it’s already July and I still looking to fight someone else at light heavyweight, middleweight or even heavyweight, but the answer from UFC by Hunter Campbell is the same : ‘Wait.'”
“I want to fight I don’t want to wait. I have just one more fight at my contract and I want this fight happen soon, but for some reason they don’t.”
Costa has never been much of an active fighter. With the exception of 2024 where he fought twice, he’s competed just once a year if that going back to 2017. He didn’t fight at all between August 2022 and February 2024 as he battled with the UFC over a new contract — and now he’s in a similar situation where he’s down to the final fight on his deal and he’s wondering why the UFC isn’t giving him a quick turnaround fight which would make him a free agent.
It cost Paulo a year and a half of his prime but he did well for himself in the last negotiations. He walked away with a deal that paid him over a million dollars per fight. But over the past two years the UFC has seemed in no rush to put Costa on the path to fame or title. Instead he’s fought tough up-and-coming Russians like Roman Kopylov and Azamat Murzakanov.
Big hype match-ups exist for Costa in the UFC, especially as he opens himself up to being a ‘moneyweight’ fighter. But will matchmakers book him in them? Not without a new contract, we’d expect. Hopefully it doesn’t take another year and a half for all parties to come to a new agreement — or for Costa to get his last fight and move on to greener pastures.
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