Israel Adesanya?s first defense of the UFC Middleweight Championship is reportedly set for this March according to Cole Shelton of BJPenn.com as the champion puts the gold on the line against #2 Paulo Costa.
Adesanya (18-0-0) is going to be making the aforementioned first defense of his championship, having just defeated Robert Whittaker at UFC 243 to become the undisputed UFC Middleweight Champion. Adesanya is a former UFC Interim Middleweight Champion, defeating Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 236 to win that title. Adesanya has picked up eighteen wins as a professional MMA fighter and fourteen of them have come by way of KO/TKO.
Costa (13-0-0) has picked up a total of five wins under the UFC banner, with the last coming over Yoel Romero via unanimous decision at UFC 241. Costa has competed a total of thirteen times as a professional MMA fighter and just one of those bouts went the distance. Costa is also going to be competing for a professional MMA championship for the first time in his pro MMA career, which began almost eight years ago.
The yet to be announced UFC event is scheduled for March from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada with no main event announced at this time. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.