Paulo Costa Says He’ll Wait for Yoel Romero to Return: ‘No Reason to Take Another Fight’

Paulo Henrique Costa lost his dance partner for UFC 230, but he doesn’t sound interested in facing a replacement opponent.

Earlier this week, Yoel Romero revealed that he would need four to five months to recover from surgery he underwent for a broken orbital suffered against Robert Whittaker at UFC 225 in June. That would have “The Soldier of God” ready to compete by the end of this year at the earliest.

The UFC already announced that Romero and Costa would square off at UFC 230, which takes place at Madison Square Garden in New York on Nov. 3. “Borrachinha” plans on waiting for Romero to return to full health and is willing to face the Cuban early next year.

"I just heard about this news. It seems like he wants more time to train and get ready for our fight, but it will happen,” Costa told Combate. “I'm going to wait for him to return, give him the time he needs to train and what he thinks [is] necessary to get ready for our fight. It should happen early next year.

“There’s no reason to take another fight before [Romero]. He is the first place in the [UFC] ranking, so there is no better fighter to fight, since [Kelvin] Gastelum vs. Whittaker is booked for the [middleweight] title. This is the fight to be done, we will wait to beat him and continue my journey to the belt.”

Costa, 27, has amassed a 12-0 career record in impressive fashion, finishing all of his opponents inside of two rounds. The Brazilian last appeared at UFC 226, where he stopped Uriah Hall by technical knockout 2:38 into the second round.