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Following days worth of back and forth on social media, Sean Strickland had the last laugh as he was booked for a fight against Alex Pereira instead of Paulo Costa, prompting the Brazilian's wrath.
Costa took to social media to share a screenshot of an article that broke the news of a potential fight between Pereira and Strickland being in the works. Clearly displeased, Costa alleged that Strickland was ducking him.
In addition to sharing a screenshot of the news article, Costa likened Strickland to a rat in his post on Twitter.
Check out Paulo Costa's post on Twitter below:
"Haha I told you guys. rats run way always."
If that wasn't enough, the Brazilian posted another tweet calling Strickland a "rat."
The UFC is targeting a fight between Alex Pereira and Sean Strickland for UFC 277 in July. The same was confirmed by multiple sources to ESPN's Brett Okamoto.
Sean Strickland is currently coming off six consecutive wins in the UFC. His impressive run of form has earned him a spot as the No. 4-ranked fighter in the official UFC middleweight rankings.
On the other hand, Alex Pereira is seemingly being fast-tracked to the top of the UFC's middleweight division.
'Poatan' has bagged a fight against a top five-ranked middleweight in what will mark only his third outing inside the octagon. The Brazilian is infamous for being the only fighter ever to have knocked out Israel Adesanya back in his kickboxing days.
Paulo Costa regards himself as the scariest middleweight
In a recent post on social media, Paulo Costa hailed himself as the scariest middleweight in the 185-lbs division. The post was originally a response to his previous tweet, which displayed a short video of 'Borrachinha' working on his striking.
See Paulo Costa's tweets below:
The Brazilian managed to impress fans with his devastating power and subsequently went on to hail himself as the most feared 185-pounder currently in the game.
'The Eraser' is currently coming off a series of setbacks at the hands of Marvin Vettori and Israel Adesanya at UFC Vegas 41 and UFC 253, respectively.
Costa was hoping to make his way back to winning ways with a scrap against Sean Strickland. However, it seems like his return to the octagon will have to wait.
