{"id":39281,"date":"2026-07-14T03:39:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T03:39:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Paulo-Costa-criticizes-UFC-after-declining-Magomed-Ankalaev-replacement-fight-201887"},"modified":"2026-07-14T03:39:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T03:39:18","slug":"paulo-costa-criticizes-ufc-after-declining-magomed-ankalaev-replacement-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/paulo-costa-criticizes-ufc-after-declining-magomed-ankalaev-replacement-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"Paulo Costa criticizes UFC after declining Magomed Ankalaev replacement fight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

Former
\nUltimate Fighting Championship<\/a> title challenger Paulo Costa<\/a>
\ndidn\u2019t like the short-notice fight offer against Magomed
\nAnkalaev<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ankalaev was originally scheduled to fight Khalil
\nRountree<\/a> in the main event at
\nUFC Abu Dhabi<\/a> on July 25 at Etihad Arena on Yas Island.
\nHowever, Rountree pulled out due to an injury and has been replaced
\nby Uzbek contender Bogdan
\nGuskov<\/a>. Costa has now revealed he was in the running to take on
\nthe former light heavyweight champion.<\/p>\n

\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Paulo Costa discusses UFC negotiations and short-notice Abu
\nDhabi offer<\/h2>\n

Costa (16-4) recently revealed that he, too, was approached by the
\nUFC to replace Rountree against Ankalaev. However, \u201cBorrachinha\u201d
\nturned down the offer as it was too short notice to fly to Abu
\nDhabi for a five-round fight. Costa also claims he was not offered
\nany extra incentive to accept a tough matchup against a former
\nchampion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey called yesterday,\u201d Costa told Ariel Helwani. \u201cBut I think
\nit\u2019s so short notice, like less than 14 days, to get a flight to
\nAbu Dhabi. 16-hour flight to Abu Dhabi, five rounds, for the same
\nmoney, and not even for an interim belt. I don’t think this makes
\nsense right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Costa has recently been calling out the UFC for not offering him a
\nfight despite him being ready. The Brazilian believes the
\nshort-notice booking against Ankalaev was offhandedly offered to
\nhim as a result of his recent demands. However, the former UFC
\nmiddleweight title challenger didn\u2019t like the way the negotiations
\nwere handled. Costa notes that the UFC has often pushed away its
\ntop talents, like former heavyweight champion Francis
\nNgannou<\/a>, due to failed negotiations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way they handled these negotiations, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s the
\nbest way,\u201d Costa added. \u201cI think they push good talents away from
\nthem. They create a distance; they create beef between fighters and
\nthe guy who negotiates. We have seen this in the past. Francis was
\none of these guys. They pushed so hard; they pushed him away and
\ngave him to big events like MVP.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHey I have a great deal for you: NON TITLE Fight in 13 days short
\nnotice, Abu Dhabi, 5 rounds , same money, nothing better,\u201d he wrote
\non X.<\/p>\n

Costa is coming off back-to-back wins over Roman
\nKopylov<\/a> and Azamat
\nMurzakanov<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

Hey I have a great deal for you: NON TITLE
\nFight in 13 days short notice , Abu Dhabi, 5 rounds , same money ,
\nnothing better. \ud83d\ude05<\/p>\n

Me: I love u too \ud83e\udd70 https:\/\/t.co\/Dn7uYJUuEE<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Paulo
\nCosta<\/a> (@BorrachinhaMMA)
\nJuly 13, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/center> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship title challenger Paulo Costa didn\u2019t like the short-notice fight offer against Magomed Ankalaev. Ankalaev was originally scheduled to fight Khalil Rountree in the main event at UFC Abu Dhabi on July 25 at Etihad Arena on Yas Island. However, Rountree pulled out due to an injury and has been replaced by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39282,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}