Paulo Costa will not be fighting a particular top-ranked UFC middleweight anytime soon.
Costa was paying attention to the UFC Abu Dhabi main event between Reinier de Ridder and Robert Whittaker. The bout went the distance and de Ridder was awarded the split decision victory. “RDR” is now a top five UFC middleweight.
Not everyone was impressed by de Ridder’s performance, as Costa hurled slurs towards the former two-division ONE Championship titleholder on social media. “Borrachinha” also claimed he would shut the lights off de Ridder.
It’s clear that Costa was pushing for a fight, but “RDR” isn’t taking the bait. Speaking to Mike Owens of Inside Fighting, de Ridder dismissed the possibility of fighting Costa, at least for now (via MMAJunkie).
“He’s a funny dude. It would lead to a nice press conference and a nice build-up, but I don’t give a f*ck what he says,” De Ridder said. “You can call me whatever you want to call me. Call me gay every day of the week. I don’t mind. Maybe one day (we’ll fight). But at the moment, I don’t think he’s there. I don’t think he’s at my level – though he did do very well in his last fight. He does pretty well against southpaws with the body kick and the straight right hand. So, he’s alright, but I think he has some work to do first.”
Costa recently snapped his two-fight skid by defeating Roman Kopylov via unanimous decision. It was a much-needed victory for “Borrachinha,” who had gone 1-4 in his previous five outings prior to the matchup. Costa is unlikely to get the fight he’s looking for at the moment, as de Ridder could be an option for the winner of the middleweight title clash between champion Dricus du Plessis and Khamzat Chimaev.
BJPenn.com will keep you posted on what’s next for Paulo Costa and Reinier de Ridder.