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UFC middleweight contender Paulo Costa has challenged former champion Robert Whittaker, following the latter's impressive unanimous decision win over Jared Cannonier at UFC 254.
Paulo Costa is understandably raring to get back inside the cage after suffering a humiliating TKO loss to UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya in the pair's main event encounter at UFC 253 with the title on the line.
Ahead of Whittaker's fight against Cannonier, UFC president Dana White said that the winner would be in pole position to challenge Adesanya for the title up next and even confirmed during the post-fight press conference following UFC 254 that a Robert Whittaker vs. Israel Adesanya rematch is the fight to make.
Paulo Costa rooting for a 2021 showdown against Robert Whittaker
Meanwhile, Paulo Costa decided to throw himself in the equation by calling for a fight against Whittaker himself. Costa took to Twitter to congratulate him on the win and respectfully called him out for a showdown in 2021. Check out what Costa said to Whittaker below.
Hey Robert Whittaker enjoy your end of year, you deserved. When you come back we can do amazing fight
Despite his loss to Adesanya, Paulo Costa remains one of the top-ranked contenders in the 185 lbs division and rightly believes that his next fight should be against a guy at the top of the heap in the well-stacked division. However, the fact remains that Whittaker has picked up two big wins against Darren Till and Jared Cannonier, respectively, and does deserve a crack at Adesanya next. Therefore, it is unlikely that "The Reaper" will agree to fight Paulo Costa in a non-title fight.
The matchmakers could look to book Paulo Costa against either Jared Cannonier or Darren Till and the winner of the fight could go on to challenge the winner of the Whittaker-Adesanya rematch because all three men lost their last fight inside the Octagon and are looking to get back into the title picture at middleweight.
