Paulo Costa has withdrawn from his April 17 headliner fight against Robert Whittaker due to a “severe” case of the flu.
The news was originally reported by Ag Fight.
Though the UFC has not yet officially announced the news and the fight has not officially been called off. However, it’s unlikely that a new opponent will be found for Whittaker, and the fight is instead likely to be rescheduled for either May 1 or 8.
Costa’s undefeated 13-fight winning streak was snapped by a TKO loss against Israel Adesanya in September last year. Prior to that, he’d collected wins against the likes of Yoel Romero and Uriah Hall.
Whittaker had a long streak of his own broken by Adesanya, marking a rare loss for the former UFC Middleweight Champion. He put himself back in the win column, however, with consecutive victories against Darren Till and Jared Cannonier in 2020.
