Robert Whittaker survives vicious spinning wheel kick, defeats Paulo Costa in UFC 298 co-main event
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to us tonight, February 17, 2024, for UFC 298, going down live from the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
Headlining the event is a featherweight championship bout between Alexander Volkanovski (26-3) and no. 3 ranked Ilia Topuria (14-0).
Co-headlining the event was a 185 lb encounter between no. 3 ranked former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker (25-7) and no. 6 ranked former title challenger Paulo Costa (14-3).
Whittaker had gone 12-2 through his first 14 bouts up at 185 lbs, only losing to former two-time UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya, going into his fight with current middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis last July at UFC 290. Whittaker lost that fight via knockout in round two, a result that shocked us all.
Costa on the other hand, following defeat to Adesanya himself, would go on to lose to no. 5 ranked Marvin Vettori immediately following. Eventually he returned in August of 2022 where he defeated former Strikeforce and UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold at UFC 278, this being his first fight in well over a year.
Continue reading to see how our middleweight co-main event of the evening went down:
Official Result: Robert Whittaker def. Paulo Costa via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
Costa looks great at the beginning of the bout, getting his jab going and nearly landing a nasty switch kick to the head. Whittaker starts to find his range with his jab, following it up with three-four punch combinations as the round goes on, landing nearly every last punch he threw.
Each man does a good job of battering the others lead leg with kicks as well.
Costa lands a vicious spinning wheel kick that had Whittaker badly hurt at the end of the opening round; he followed up with a barrage of punches, continuing to land on the former champion, but the bell sounded and potentially saved Whittaker from being stopped.
Costa really starts to bust Whittaker up early on in the second, bloodying his face quite badly, though Whittaker would land a number of heavy shots of his own as the round goes on, also continuing to attack the lead leg of Costa.
Round three was much like the second, Costa doing well in the first half of it and Whittaker outstriking him as the round goes on. This was a good fight and a great performance by both, but Costa falls to 1-3 over his last four since opening up his career at 13-0 and Whittaker improves to 13-3 as a middleweight.
Robert Whittaker gets back to his winning ways tonight with a victory over Paulo Costa at UFC 298.
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