Paulo Costa‘s coach & brother has provided some more details on the current health of the UFC middleweight contender.

It was recently reported that Costa has been forced out of his highly anticipated April 17 fight against Robert Whittaker, a fight many saw as a potential No. 1 contender bout at 185lbs. At the time, it was said Costa had been suffering from a severe case of the flu.

In an interview with MMA Fighting, Carlos Costa spoke in more detail about the problems his brother is currently dealing with.

“We just want to postpone [the fight] a week or two so ‘Borrachinha’ can recover,” Carlos Costa said. “He had COVID and then had the flu, and the flu is taking a long time to go away. We just want to postpone [the fight].”

“[Paulo’s] symptoms were moderate,” Carlos said. “But there’s an issue: He never stopped training. He continued training. He hasn’t fully recovered since then.

“He had sore throat, and then a huge secretion in the chest. His physical conditioning dropped a little bit, and then a few weeks ago he had this severe flu. We’ll get [a] chest X-ray and other exams done to see if COVID has affected anything.”

Quotes courtesy of MMA Fighting

Both Costa and Whittaker have had to build themselves back up in the wake of their respective defeats to Israel Adesanya, but unlike Whittaker, Costa has yet to get back in the Octagon and back on the winning trail.

Instead, we’ve heard a parade of excuses as to why he was unable to dethrone “The Last Stylebender” when the two met for the UFC Middleweight Championship.

Now, the attention will turn to his recovery and when he may be able to get back in there and fight.

Who do you think Paulo Costa will now fight in his UFC return?