The anticipation surrounding UFC 326, which was scheduled to feature a compelling main event rematch between Max Holloway and Charles Oliveira for the BMF title, has suffered a significant setback. Just days after its official announcement, the middleweight clash between the highly-ranked Brazilian contender **Paulo Costa** and **Brunno Ferreira** has been abruptly canceled following Costa’s withdrawal.
While fight cancellations are an unfortunate reality within mixed martial arts, Costa’s consistent inability to adhere to scheduled bookings has moved beyond standard procedural nuisance and into the realm of a structural problem, eliciting a seismic wave of negative reaction from the global fanbase.
The Anatomy of a Cancellation
The fight between `The Eraser` and Ferreira was intended to serve as a pivotal matchup on the preliminary card, offering Costa a chance to build momentum following his recent, singular win against Roman Kopylov—his only octagon appearance in the prior year. However, the news broke late last week that Costa would once again be absent from the cage.
For promotional analysts, this latest incident is merely the continuation of a worrying trend. In the span of the last 24 months, Costa has now withdrawn from three high-profile engagements. Most notably, his highly anticipated bout against rising star Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi was scrapped under similar circumstances, severely damaging the profile of that event.
The irony inherent in Costa`s nickname, `The Eraser,` is stark: rather than erasing opponents in the Octagon, he seems uniquely focused on erasing himself from the event schedule altogether. This repetitive pattern translates directly into profound financial and logistical stress for the promotion, the opponents, and the fans who travel or pay specifically for these matchups.
Fan Loyalty in the Balance
The immediate public response to the cancellation was not characterized by disappointment, but by raw, visceral anger. The MMA community, often forgiving of injury-related setbacks, has grown weary of the frequent nature of Costa’s withdrawals, questioning his commitment and professionalism.
Social media platforms became a sounding board for fan frustration, with comments ranging from requests for the UFC to “cut this clown” to assertions that the fighter is a “fraud” who “never once delivered a fight we wanted.” The consensus suggests a profound loss of faith in his reliability as a headline-caliber athlete.
Despite this overwhelming negativity and his noted inactivity, Costa remarkably maintains a slot within the middleweight Top 15 rankings—a testament to his name recognition, rather than his recent body of work or ranking stability. This anomaly further fuels fan dissatisfaction, who view his ranking as undeserved based on his current output.
Darren Till Unleashes the Scorn
The most scathing critique arrived from a figure who holds his own complicated history in the middleweight division: former title challenger Darren Till. Till, who has previously engaged in online disputes with Costa, used the withdrawal as a catalyst for a comprehensive and aggressive character assessment.
Till’s commentary was direct, cutting past typical fight banter to accuse Costa of disrespecting the sport and labeling him a “bum” and a “big jumped up joke of a juice head.” The former UFC star implored Costa to retire and focus exclusively on his “secret juice gig,” suggesting that fighting capability was secondary to his marketability.
In a final, brutally ironic blow, Till claimed Costa might be “the worst fighter to ever fight in the UFC,” adding that Costa’s single title challenge was worse than his own high-profile failure. This statement, coming from a fighter acknowledging his own shortcomings, underscores the severity of the damage Costa`s reputation has sustained.
“Has no respect for the sport. Just quit Costa and keep doing your secret juice gig, because that’s the only thing that works for you. You’re a bum. You’re a w—-. Quit please, quit my brother.”
— Darren Till, former UFC star
The Cost of Inactivity
The latest withdrawal from UFC 326 places Paulo Costa in an increasingly precarious position. The UFC operates as a highly demanding enterprise, valuing consistent performance and, perhaps more crucially, consistent participation. The organizational tolerance for recurrent cancellations, particularly from high-earning fighters, is finite.
As the promotion looks to fill the void left by Costa’s absence, the central question remains: At what point does the promotional value of a highly recognizable, but completely unreliable, fighter drop below the cost of the repeated logistical disruption they cause? For Paulo Costa, the balance sheet of reliability appears to be rapidly approaching zero.
