Paulo Costa rips Reinier de Ridder's 'bad fight' at UFC on ABC 9, gets response
De Ridder (21-2 MMA, 4-0 UFC) kept his undefeated octagon run alive on Saturday when he edged Whittaker (26-9 MMA, 17-7 UFC) by split decision in Abu Dhabi. It was a closely contested bout and resulted in the biggest victory that former two-division ONE Championship titleholder has ever had, but Costa wasn't impressed.
The one-time UFC title challenger Costa (15-4 MMA, 7-4 UFC), who is coming off a unanimous decision win over Roman Kopylov at UFC 318 this month, had only negative reviews about de Ridder on social media (via X):
When asked about Costa's messages at the UFC on ABC 9 post-event news conference, de Ridder brushed off the criticism and pondered aloud what the outcome was when the Brazilian shared the octagon with Whittaker at UFC 298 in February 2024.
"There's always a hater out there," de Ridder told MMA Junkie. "Did Paulo Costa never fight Whittaker? (He did). What happened?"
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