Paulo Costa vs Jared Cannonier is being finalized to headline UFC Fight Night on August 21

Paulo Costa vs Jared Cannonier is being finalized to headline UFC Fight Night on August 21

Paulo Costa and Jared Cannonier

The top UFC Middleweight contenders Paulo Costa and Jared Cannonier will headline the UFC Fight Night on 21st August. The UFC President Dana White told Brett Okamoto that the promotion is very close to finalizing the fight between Costa and Cannonier.

Paulo Costa is currently ranked at number 2 in the UFC Middleweight division rankings and he is coming in this fight with a defeat against the champion Israel Adesanya at UFC 253. This was Costa’s first loss of his entire MMA career.

After this, he was booked to face the former Middleweight champion Robert Whittaker in April but Costa pulled out his name from the fight due to health issues faced by Covid. In his fight against Adesanya, Costa blamed excessive drinking for his loss.

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Since then he is trying to get a shot at the top contender of the division to get his hands on Adesanya again in any way possible and Jared Cannonier will be standing in his way to stop him from getting this shot again.

Jared Cannonier on the other hand was Israel Adesanya’s next pick for a title shot before he lost to Robert Whittaker in his last fight. This fight broke 3 fight winning streak of Cannonier that came after he made his Middleweight debut.

Due to Cannonier’s loss, Adesanya moved to the Light Heavyweight division to face Jan Blachowicz for his title but ‘The Last Style Bender’ also faced his first MMA loss in this fight. Now, Adesanya is booked to face Marvin Vettori in a rematch for his next title defense.

The winner of this rematch is booked to face Whittaker next but Adesanya’s coach already said after rejecting the short notice fight against Adesanya he goes back in the pool. So, things will get interesting if Jared Cannonier wins this one will he be getting the title shot ahead of Whittaker?

UFC Fight Night: Paulo Costa vs Jared Cannonier Fight Card

Jared Cannonier and Paulo Costa
Jared Cannonier and Paulo Costa

Apart from the Middleweight fight between Paulo Costa and Jared Cannonier, the rest of the fight card looks likes this until now.

  • Fabio Cherant vs William Knight
  • Austin Hubbard vs Vinc Pichel
  • Alexander Pantoja vs Brandon Royval
  • Austin Lingo vs Luis Saldana
  • Parker Porter vs Chase Sherman

Also Read: ‘Canelo Alvarez may be the Pound for Pound maybe greatest boxer right now… Not fighter’ – An old video of Israel Adesanya resurfaces.