Paulo Costa explained that he was initially announced to fight Ikram Aliskerov at UFC 291 as part of a negotiation tactic during contract discussions, but knew long before that this was unlikely to happen; both fighters were later pulled from UFC 291 and are now set to fight separate opponents at UFC 294 following Costa’s contract renewal.
In the run-up to UFC 291, Paulo Costa dominated the marquee. However, despite an announcement in May detailing a match between Costa and upcoming middleweight, Ikram Aliskerov, during the main card of the July 29 pay-per-view, the fight didn’t take place. Costa explained that five to six weeks prior, he was already aware he wouldn’t be combating Aliskerov at UFC 291. According to the Brazilian MMA fighter, the announcement was merely a promotional negotiation tactic as both parties negotiated Costa’s new UFC contract.
“Negotiation was the central issue,” Costa elaborated during The MMA Hour. He alleged the prospects of the fight happening were 99% unlikely from the onset of talks about a bout with Ikrim. Costa empathized with Ikrim, whom he described as a talented kid and admitted to not watching many of his games, except for Ikrim’s UFC fight against Phil Hawes, whom he’d trained with in 2015. He expressed his view that Ikrim needed to advance further to compete with bigger names.
In a twist, Costa and Aliskerov were pulled from UFC 291 and booked for separate bouts on October 21 at UFC 294. Costa was set to square off against Khamzat Chimaev, and Aliskerov against top middleweight contender Nassourdine Imavov. With the Chimaev fight booked and his new contract signed, Costa bore no ill feelings towards the UFC’s rush to advertise a fight that was never going to occur.
For Costa, a bout with Chimaev marked the end of a drawn-out negotiation process that had kept him on the sidelines for 14 months by the time UFC 294 comes around. His last fight was in August 2022, when he triumphed over Luke Rockhold. He revealed that the match against Chimaev, advocated for by UFC president Dana White, had been proposed at the start of 2023, but he had initially been reluctant due to the long wait until October. Despite his gripes with the timeline, he admitted to liking the idea of taking on Chimaev due to a longstanding feud between them.