With One Fight Remaining on UFC Deal, Paulo Costa Keeping Options Open

Whether Paulo Costa remains with the Ultimate Fighting Championship for the long haul remains to be seen.

“Borrachinha” completed the next-to-last fight on his current deal at UFC 278, as he defeated former champ Luke Rockhold via unanimous decision in the evening’s co-main event at Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City on Saturday night. At the post-fight press conference, Costa said while he is interested in remaining with the UFC, he is keeping his options open.

“We’ve had a lot of great opportunities [that] came up,” Costa said. “We know that boxing is going very well. We have some companies doing very good shows, even in Brazil. Brazil has a big show there, a fight music show. We had the most popular people in Brazil fighting there … We have a lot of great opportunities there, but the UFC is a great company. I’m glad to be here, but I need to see what’s best for us.”

At the time, the Brazilian wasn’t sure if he had completed his UFC contract or if there was one fight left, but he later confirmed in an interview with Ag.Fight that he does have one bout remaining on his existing deal. Costa is either interested in competing again by the end of the year or at the recently announced UFC 283 event in Rio de Janeiro.

“I can fight in a couple months, maybe two months next, of course,” Costa said. “I’d like to fight in December or end of November. But I know we have UFC Rio in Brazil in January, so maybe I can wait a little more. … I need to sit down and put attention and look what is best for my future. If I have one more, let’s see what Dana White has for me. I’m pretty sure they do an amazing job making exciting fights happen. They know how to eat.”

Meanwhile, UFC president Dana White, though he has had his issues with Costa in the past, is open to re-signing the former middleweight title challenger.

“(I have) nothing but respect for both of those guys tonight,” White said of Costa and Rockhold. “Of course we’d like to re-sign [Costa]. We’ll see what happens.”