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Former champ Whittaker faces returning Costa at UFC 298
Ranked middleweights will get the spotlight in the UFC 298 co-main event, as past champion Robert Whittaker will face former title challenger Paulo Costa. The fight will be Costa’s first appearance in nearly a year and a half, with his most recent fight being a 2022 decision win against Luke Rockhold.
Before that win over Rockhold, Costa suffered a pair of losses to notable 185-pound talents Israel Adesanya and Marvin Vettori. While he is riding the momentum of a win, Costa certainly isn’t in the title discussion right now. However, he can edge himself one step closer to being a potential challenger for Dricus Du Plessis with a solid performance over Whittaker.
Whittaker, a fighter who has been one of the top names in the division for years, will be trying to come back from a loss he suffered last summer. In his final fight before dethroning Sean Strickland and earning the middleweight championship, Du Plessis overcame Whittaker at UFC 290 last year via finish. A win on Saturday could push Whittaker closer to accomplishing two tasks at once: Avenging his loss to Du Plessis and regaining the UFC Middleweight Championship.
Bloody Elbow will be providing round-by-round coverage of the UFC 298 co-main event as it happens on Saturday night. Make sure to check back on this page as the fight happens to receive updates on the middleweight bout.
UFC 298: Robert Whittaker vs. Paulo Costa live play-by-play
Round 1
Whittaker opened the fight by landing a leg kick. Costa connected with a lead jab before Whittaker landed another pair of leg kicks. Costa responded with his own leg kick, then tried for one upstairs. Costa threw another head kick a minute into the fight, but Whittaker had his arms up. Both were getting active with their jabs in the second minute of the round. Costa threw a jab and Whittaker countered with an overhand left. Whittaker came forward with a left hook, Costa responded with a left hand of his own that made Whittaker pause for a moment. Whittaker seemingly caught Costa with an uppercut on the counter halfway into the round. Whittaker charged forward and landed another left hand. Costa landed a kick to the thigh with 90 seconds to go. Whittaker scored on a couple of jabs. A hard right cross from Whittaker got a pop from the crowd with a minute left. Costa ends the round with a spinning back kick that connected to the head and wobbled Whittaker. Quite the plot twist to end a round that looked like it was Whittakers. This is hard to score, but I think that final shot gave Costa the edge. I’ll go 10-9 for him, but I’m open to the round going either way.
Round 2
A head kick from Whittaker grazed the head of Costa in the opening minute of the round, causing a smile from the Brazilian talent. Whittaker was still going for leg kicks, landing again early in this round. Costa connected with a few short punches to Whittaker, who is showing some damage on his face now. The fight was paused briefly due to a thumb getting into Whittaker’s right eye. Whittaker scored with a few more leg kicks after the fight resumed. He also landed a solid two-punch combo of hooks that connected. Whittaker put together a series of hooks that landed clean once again, and Costa egged him on to throw more. Costa whiffed on a high kick and then had another blocked. The output dropped off somewhat as the second round came down to its last minute. Whittaker landed another two-punch combo in the final 30 seconds. Whittaker had a strong bounce-back round against Costa and, if he lost the first round, now likely has it tied up 19-19.
Round 3
Broadcast mentioned that Costa’s corner is concerned about the leg kicks he’s consuming. Whittaker is, unexpectedly, still throwing them in the third round. To Costa’s credit, he was also landing leg kicks and some bruising is visible on Whittaker’s legs. Costa was hit with a hard right hand after getting tied up with Whittaker for a moment. They went into a clinch again, with Costa landing to the body of Whittaker with a knee. Costa advanced on Whittaker in the third minute of this round, throwing kicks to the legs and body. Whittaker was coming forward with singular shots, much different from the flurries he was unloading earlier on. Costa continued to keep Whittaker on the perimeter of the cage, which wasn’t seen in the earlier frames. Costa missed on another spinning back kick. Both were throwing punches late in the round, although not a lot were connecting too hard. Whittaker threw a double jab with 15 seconds to go. Whittaker briefly grabbed the leg of Costa for a takedown before separating. The fight runs out of time. This is going to be a nail-biter on scorecards. I could see this going either fighter’s way. The third round was the hardest to score, I think it might be 29-28 Whittaker.
Official Decision
Robert Whittaker def. Paulo Costa via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28 & 30-27)
UFC 298 Quick Results
Main Card (10 p.m. ET) (PPV)
- Ilia Topuria def. Alexander Volkanovski via KO (right hook) at 3:32 in Round 2: UFC Featherweight Championship
- Robert Whittaker def. Paulo Costa via unanimous decision: Middleweight
- Ian Machado Garry def. Geoff Neal via unanimous decision: Welterweight
- Merab Dvalishvili def. Henry Cejudo via unanimous decision: Bantamweight
- Anthony Hernandez def. Roman Kopylov via submission (rear naked choke) at 3:23 in Round 2: Middleweight
Preliminary Card (8 p.m. ET) (ESPN & ESPN+)
- Amanda Lemos def. Mackenzie Dern via unanimous decision: Strawweight
- Marcos Rogerio de Lima def. Junior Tafa via TKO (leg kicks) at 1:14 in Round 2: Heavyweight
- Rinya Nakamura def. Carlos Vera via unanimous decision: Bantamweight
- Zhang Mingyang def. Brendson Riberio via TKO (punches) at 1:41 in Round 3: Light Heavyweight
Early Prelims (6:30 p.m. ET) (ESPN+ & UFC Fight Pass)
- Danny Barlow def. Josh Quinlan via TKO (punches) at 1:18 in Round 3: Welterweight
- Oban Elliott def. Val Woodburn via unanimous decision: Welterweight
- Miranda Maverick def. Andrea Lee via unanimous decision: Flyweight
UFC 298: Live stream, start time, where to watch
UFC 298’s main card will begin at 10 p.m. ET, available via pay-per-view on ESPN+. The top half of the prelims can be viewed at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN+, along with ESPN’s main TV channel. The early prelims will take place at 6:30 p.m. ET, with online services ESPN+ and UFC Fight Pass carrying the portion of the card.
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