Paulo Costa reveals he’s fighting out his contract at UFC 278, unsure what the future holds: “We’ll see”

Paulo Costa will be fighting out his UFC contract on Saturday night at UFC 278.

Costa is set to serve as the co-main event of the pay-per-view card from Salt Lake City, Utah against Luke Rockhold. The Brazilian enters the fight on a two-fight losing skid and he revealed at media day that he is fighting out his contract on Saturday night.

“I believe, yeah,” Costa said at UFC 278 media day, when asked if this was the last fight of his contract.

The news is a surprise given Costa is a top-five middleweight and a fan-favorite and when asked if he would leave the UFC after this fight, he didn’t seem certain on what his future holds.

“We’ll see, we have to talk. It’s a business, it’s business for the UFC, business for me, we have to talk,” Costa said.

Along with this being the last fight of his contract, Paulo Costa also fired his manager Wallid Ismail and is now represented by his girlfriend.

“I have nothing bad to say about Wallid. He is an honest person and very professional, I just have compliments about him,” Costa said (translation by Sherdog). “We just have different views about my career and, because of that, we decided to not work together anymore.”

Paulo Costa (13-2) has not fought since October when he suffered a decision loss to Marvin Vettori in his first fight since losing to Israel Adesanya by TKO for the middleweight belt. In his UFC career, Costa is 5-2 with his wins coming over Yoel Romero, Uriah Hall, Johny Hendricks, Oluwale Bamgbose, and Garreth McLellan. Costa is also ranked sixth at middleweight and is also the former Jungle Fight middleweight champ.

What do you make of Paulo Costa fighting out his UFC contract on Saturday at UFC 278?