Chael Sonnen claims that Khamzat Chimaev vs. Paulo Costa has been agreed to.
After Chimaev missed weight for his scrap against Nate Diaz, the plan was for him to move up to middleweight. However, he still doesn’t have a fight booked, but he revealed he will be returning at UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi in October, but he did not say who it would be against.
Chimaev-Costa to be three rounds
Yet, Sonnen was on The MMA Hour on Monday and revealed he has been told that Khamzat Chimaev will be facing Paulo Costa in the co-main event of the card.
“Well, so my understanding is Khamzat is going to fight Paulo Costa, they’ve even got a date,” Sonnen said. “They’re gonna go out (to) Abu Dhabi, that’s a co-main event – very relevant, they’ll be there for three rounds instead of five – Islam on the top of the bill. Now the relevance to Islam on the top of the bill is Islam’s gonna fight the winner of Charles (Oliveira) and Benny (Beneil Dariush), and that’s still three weeks away. So that means the card that I’m referencing out in Abu Dhabi and the placement of the co-main event, we’re four, five months away in a best-case scenario. So it looks like we’re gonna keep those two on ice.”
When asked if he was breaking the news, Chael Sonnen said that is just what he has been told. But, he is sure that is the UFC’s plan so we will see Khamzat Chimaev vs. Paulo Costa in October.
“I think the world kind of knows it’s blowing in that direction. But Paulo Costa did get his deal done with the UFC, right? That was up, remember he was gonna fight Robert Whittaker and it was this whole thing, that’s all smoothed out. It’s going to be next,” Sonnen said. “I mean I just told you where it was. I didn’t know I was revealing something, now you’ve got me a little bit nervous. But I was not sworn to secrecy and that is all true what I just said.”
As of right now, there is no official announcement from the UFC but Sonnen expects the fight to be announced soon.
