Khamzat Chimaev claims he has “a better opponent” than Paulo Costa

Khamzat Chimaev says he will be fighting someone better than Paulo Costa.

Costa was supposed to take on Ikram Aliskerov at UFC 291 but reports have come out that the Brazilian is out of the matchup. He then took to Twitter to say he is out of the fight to fight Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi.

However, Chimaev took to Twitter himself and claimed he has a better opponent than Costa.

https://twitter.com/KChimaev/status/1681429199188557825

“you are a bum now, I have a better opponent,” Khamzat Chimaev wrote on Twitter.

Chimaev shuts down Costa fight

If Khamzat Chimaev does have a better opponent than Paulo Costa, it will be interesting to see who that it is given the fact the Brazilian is ranked top-10 at middleweight. However, the hope for most MMA fans is that both Costa and Chimaev fight soon as it has been nearly a year since both men last fight despite all the rumors that they will return soon.

RELATED: Israel Adesanya talks controversial UFC 290 faceoff with Dricus Du Plessis.

Although Chimaev claims he has a better opponent than Costa, at this point it does seem like this is the fight that will happen as both have taken shots at one another for quite some time. But, until the contract is signed, it is hard to really trust that either Chimaev or Costa will be fighting anytime soon.

Khamzat Chimaev (12-0) hasn’t fought since September when he submitted Kevin Holland in the first round at UFC 279 in September. Prior to that, he beat Gilbert Burns by decision at UFC 273. In the UFC, Chimaev is 6-0 and also has beaten Li Jingliang and Gerald Meerschaert.

Paulo Costa (14-2) hasn’t fought since August of last year when he beat Luke Rockhold by decision. The win snapped his two-fight losing skid after he dropped a decision to Marvin Vettori and suffered a TKO loss to Israel Adesanya for the middleweight title.