Paulo Costa fractured his right hand during his 15-minute clash with Luke Rockhold at UFC 278 this past Saturday in Salt Lake City and has already went under the knife to fix the damage.
The Brazilian middleweight revealed on his YouTube channel that he underwent surgery Thursday and it was deemed a success.
“I broke my hand in the fight,” Costa said. “I thought I had a bone injury or maybe ligaments, but what really happened was a fracture to the metacarpal bone. I hoped it wasn’t a fracture because then I would be able to come back to fighting again in 50 or 60 days and use all the conditioning and the whole camp I’ve done [for UFC 278].”
Costa bounced back from defeats to middleweight champion Israel Adesanya and Marvin Vettori with a decision win over Rockhold and laments his first fracture since turning pro in MMA. According to the UFC fighter, his recovery will likely require around eight weeks before he’s cleared to spar, but he will be able to train other aspects of the game “in two or three weeks.”
“Borrachinha” has one fight left on his contract with the UFC and has said multiple times he plans on completing the deal and testing the market before possibly re-signing with the UFC.
“I planned on fighting in 60 days but it won’t be possible,” he said. “I’ll have to fight in December or January. We’ll have a UFC card in Rio [on January 21] so maybe it happens there. It’s up to the UFC.”
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