Costa Turns Down UFC On ABC 2 Main Event Slot

Team ‘Borrachinha’ prefers to keep their fight with Robert Whittaker on ESPN+ April 17th rather than headline an April 10th card on ABC.

The UFC is headed back to ABC in April, and it looks like the promotion is hoping to stack the card with big names.

The promotion made its first appearance on ABC in January with UFC Fight Night: Holloway vs. Kattar. That show pulled an average of 1.22 million viewers over its 3 hour broadcast, peaking at 1.6 million for the main event and drawing a .72 rating in the all important 18-49 demographic.

Them’s not exactly stellar numbers, but considering the card started at 3pm and was facing heavy competition with NFL playoff games, ABC seems happy enough to have the UFC back.

The next date: Saturday April 10th. The UFC’s choice to headline? Paulo Costa vs. Robert Whittaker. Unfortunately, that fight was already targeted for an April 17th UFC Fight Night on ESPN+, and Costa’s team is refusing to accept the April 10th date. It seems like a strange decision — the UFC is clearly trying to put the biggest non-PPV fights they can on these network cards, and Disney is also pushing these broadcast television cards to try and sweep people back to ESPN+. But hey, “Borrachinha” gonna “Borrachinha.”

Robert Whittaker’s team seemed to take a bit of a swipe at Costa’s inflexibility with a Facebook post declaring “APR 10, APR 17, TOMORROW. WE ARE READY.”

According to MMA Fighting, Whittaker vs. Costa is still on for April 17th. The big fights in the works for the April 10th card that we know about: Darren Till vs. Marvin Vettori and Mackenzie Dern vs. Nina Ansaroff.