Brazilian ace Paulo Costa will be returning to action at UFC 298 after almost two years of inactivity. He’ll be going head-to-head against former champion Robert Whittaker for the first time in his UFC career. However, MMA legend and analyst Chael Sonnen believes that the fight could be in line to getting called off.

Paulo Costa was scheduled to fight Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 294. However, he pulled out just days before the fight due to an elbow infection. Costa had to get surgery on his elbow for bursitis and has since recovered from it. While he’s got his next fight at UFC 298, Chael Sonnen has doubts regarding it taking place.

Chael Sonnen claims Paulo Costa vs. Robert Whittaker could get canceled

In a recent video posted on his YouTube channel, ‘The American Gangster’ mentioned the time when Anthony Johnson and Jon Jones were paired to fight each other. However, Chael Sonnen somehow knew that the fight wasn’t happening and, as such, the fight did not come to fruition.

He believes that the Paulo Costa vs. Robert Whittaker fight is in a similar situation. Sonnen said, “I am not that Bullish on Paulo Costa versus Robert Whittaker. I am not that bullish, but boy, it’s along the same lane [as Jones vs. Johnson].”

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Chael Sonnen has a feeling that neither former champion Whittaker nor former title challenger Costa has prepared well enough to fight at UFC 298. Furthermore, a lot more uncertainty gets added to the fight since ‘Borrachinha’ hasn’t fought in almost a couple of years.

“It doesn’t feel like those guys are getting ready to fight, and to my understanding, when was the last time Paulo Costa fought? It’s been very meaningful,” Sonnen added. He further went on to share a reminder of another one of Costa’s fight plans getting scrapped. Let’s have a look at that front.

Costa’s fight against Khamzat Chimaev was never re-booked

The UFC generally tends to re-book a matchup between two fighters if they cannot fight on the earlier scheduled date. As such, Chael Sonnen was hoping to see Paulo Costa and Khamzat Chimaev finally square off against each other inside the Octagon. He further stated, “He was supposed to get into a little scrappy do with [Khamzat] Chimaev on October 22nd, and generally when you have a fight to that magnitude, if something happens and it doesn’t come off, you rematch that same fight down the road.”

Nevertheless, the UFC did not follow through with Paulo Costa’s fight against Khamzat Chimaev. Furthermore, the discussions regarding a potential re-booking of the fight haven’t been brought up by Dana White and the UFC matchmakers. “Before you know it, you’ve had a pretty meaningful amount of time [to recover from injury]… and rebooking that fight not only did not happen, it was never even discussed,” Chael Sonnen added.

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Paulo Costa and Robert Whittaker were earlier scheduled to fight at UFC 284. However, that fight got canceled and Chael Sonnen claims a similar aura of uncertainty surrounds their UFC 298 fight. It remains to be seen how things pan out for both fighters as we approach the pay-per-view event on February 17.

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