Costa Teases ‘Jan. 20’ Return At UFC 297

Will Costa step back into the cage on January 20th? The Brazilian UFC star implied something big was coming on that date, but we have our doubts.

Will Paulo Costa make his long-awaited return on January 20th at UFC 297 in Toronto, Canada? That certainly seems to be what “Borrachinha” is suggesting in a new social media posting.

Costa hasn’t fought since August 2022 for a variety of reasons, the main ones being an extended contract negotiation and a more recent staph injury that took him off UFC 294 in October. The popular Brazilian fighter was pushing hard to stay on the Abu Dhabi card against Khamzat Chimaev, but the giant gaping hole in his elbow was just a little too big.

Now he’s sharing a date with no further context.

“Jan 20,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter) with two fist emojis.

That’s the date of UFC 297 in Toronto, Canada, headlined by middleweight champion Sean Strickland vs. Dricus Du Plessis. Also on the card: a women’s bantamweight title fight between Raquel Pennington and Mayra Bueno Silva. We’d say the card could use the extra star power that Paulo Costa would bring, but it’s looking pretty full: there’s 14 fights already confirmed for the card.

There’s also the question of who Costa would fight. Is the UFC looking to re-book him against Khamzat Chimaev? There’s no way Chimaev shows up on the undercard of UFC 297 after being passed over for the middleweight title main event. Besides, “Borz” is currently having a hell of a time traveling and can’t enter the United States. Would Canada welcome him? The answer looks like no considering UFC booked Strickland vs. Du Plessis.

Still, there’s plenty of other good fights for Costa at middleweight. In fact, we’d take Costa vs. pretty much anybody at this point, just to see “Borrachinha” fight again. We bet Paulo is getting extremely twitchy to fight as well. He signed a new deal with the UFC back in March 2023 that will reportedly pay him over a million dollars per fight.

Eight months later and he still hasn’t fought, which means he still hasn’t been paid.