A fun fight between Paulo Costa and Shara “Bullet” Magomedov is in the works for the UFC’s first visit to Qatar.
The November 22nd card in Doha, Qatar is getting booked up, with fights like Jan Blachowicz vs. Bogdan Gustov, Alex Perez vs. Asu Almabayev, and Alexandre Topuria vs. Bekzat Almakhan being announced over the past week.
Now we have Paulo Costa revealing he’s agreed to a fight against Magomedov that was offered to him by UFC. Reputable MMA journalist Laerte Viana has confirmed the UFC plans to make this match the co-main event in Doha.
“Was offered Shara bullet in Qatar. It’s looks fun, I said yes,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Keep your eye(s) open guys … One single good Eye poke, be penalized with one less point, Shara fights 100% blind. Deal.”
Costa is coming off a strong decision win over Roman Kopylov back in July that saw him snap a two fight losing streak. Before that, he sat out for nearly two years as he renegotiated his contract with UFC.
“It’s gonna be the second Russian in a row to been beaten,” he tweeted. “The 3 you guys who’s next, the cupcake boring balls sniffer.”
That would be new middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev, who Costa was supposed to fight in 2023. That bout fell apart at the last minute due to a nasty infection in Costa’s elbow which forced doctors to remove “Borrachinha” from the card. The Brazilian has been pushing for the fight since then, but the No. 13 ranked middleweight will have to win a few more to get anywhere close to a title fight.
A win over unranked Shara “Bullet” won’t help much in that regard, but would certainly be a high profile fight. “Bullet” is a fan favorite and has been a staple on UFC shows in the Middle East, partially because of his popularity and partially because he only has one working eye and can’t get sanctioned to fight in America.
Magomedov is 5-1 in the UFC with his sole loss coming to Michael “Venom” Page, so this may be a tougher bout than Costa realizes.
