Two more fights have bee added to February’s UFC 298, and they’re big ones, including an appearance by former champ Robert Whittaker.
On Thursday, UFC CEO Dana White announced that the long-awaited showdown between ex-middleweight champ Whittaker (24-7) and contender/ex-title challenger Paulo Costa (14-2) had been added to the February PPV event. In addition, a previously announced welterweight match-up between Ian Machado Garry (13-0) and Geoff Neal (15-6), initially for March’s UFC 299, has instead shifted to UFC 298.
No reason for the latter move was given by White, who instead told fans to “deal with it.”
Whittaker and Costa were first scheduled to meet as part of UFC 284 in February 2023, only for Costa to withdraw from the fight, claiming it was never a done deal. Eventually, Costa would sign a new contract with the company, and wind up briefly paired with both Ikram Aliskerov and Khamzat Chimaev — with both match-ups falling through. As a result, Paulo Costa has not competed since his 2022 win over Luke Rockhold.
Robert Whittaker, for his part, is coming off a loss to Dricus Du Plessis that landed the latter in the title hunt. As for Whittaker, a perennial title contender at 185lbs, he’ll look to stay in the mix with a win over Costa.
Ian Garry had been expected to fight Vicente Luque at UFC 296 earlier this month, only to contract pneumonia. Forced out of the fight, he’s now been re-booked with Neal, a match-up previously scheduled for UFC 292 earlier this year.
UFC 298 takes place on Feb. 17, 2024 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA with the following match-ups reported for the card:
- Alexander Volkanovski (c) vs. Ilia Topuria — for the UFC featherweight championship
- Robert Whittaker vs. Paulo Costa
- Merab Dvalishvili vs. Henry Cejudo
- Tai Tuivasa vs. Marcin Tybura
- Ian Machado Garry vs. Geoff Neal
- Tatiana Suarez vs. Amanda Lemos
- Anthony Hernandez vs. Ikram Aliskerov
- Marcos Rogério de Lima vs. Justin Tafa
- Zhang Mingyang vs. Brendson Ribeiro
- Yusaku Kinoshita vs. Danny Barlow
- Andrea Lee vs. Miranda Maverick
- Rinya Nakamura vs. Brady Hiestand
- Oban Elliott vs. Valentine Woodburn
