Robert Whittaker Calls for Title Eliminator After Beating 'Best Version' of Paulo Costa

Robert Whittaker wants a title eliminator booking after defeating a version of Paulo Costa that he believe would have beaten a lot of elite middleweights.

Costa hadn’t fought since August 2022 going into his UFC 298 booking against Whittaker last month. In his most recent appearance, “Borrachinha” had bounced back from a two-fight skid with a bizarre decision win over Luke Rockhold, who returned to action after a three-year hiatus. While there was a lot of speculation about how Costa would fare against Whittaker, the former champ was preparing for the best version of his opponent to show up. And show up he did, as the Brazilian put on a valiant effort in going the distance against “Bobby Knuckles” despite coming up on the short side of a unanimous decision.

According to Whittaker, Costa put on the best performance of his career at UFC 298.

“I’m in the gym multiple times a day training for the absolute version of Paulo Costa and unfortunately, I got that. I got the absolute best version of it,” the 33-year-old said on “The MMA Hour”.

“And like, good on him but I think that was his best performance. I think for sure that was his best performance and he gave it to me. Bloody hell, right? Yeah, he’d come in really, really good. I think that version of Costa beats a lot of guys, a lot of guys at the high level. He was much faster than we anticipated. I knew from watching his fights with Romero, like he has that doggedness in him to not go away. He has a head on him, he can fight wars. And the only thing that I could point out was that he doesn’t look as good when someone’s taking the fight to him. Not that he goes away, not that he looks for an exit, it’s just that he doesn’t look as good. He can get pushed around a little bit, and usually he can get out struck that way. So that was my thing going in, I was gonna fight fire with fire.”

Whittaker is plotting a return to action in August when the Ultimate Fighting Championship is rumored to be returning to Australia and wants a title eliminator clash in front of his home fans.

“There’s rumors of a UFC card coming to Australia in August. And I think just because of how busy the division is and how everyone’s tied up, I’d love to fight on home soil in August… Anyone that gets me to the title, I want the next fight to be a contender fight. I want the next fight to be the fight that puts me against the gold so I can get that back.”

Reigning champ Dricus Du Plessis is expected to defend his strap against Israel Adesanya sometime this year. When asked if recently dethroned champ Sean Strickland makes sense for a title eliminator, Whittaker replied in the affirmative.

“Yeah, I like that, I haven’t fought Sean before. And I know beating Sean puts me in that conversation. So yeah, it’s all systems go.”