Paulo Costa in wild brawl with fan at UFC 294

Paulo Costa was supposed to fight in the UFC 294 cage, but he ended up fighting outside it on Saturday at Etihad Arena.

The video below shows Costa fending off several attackers, one of whom jumped at him as UFC security stepped in. It was not clear who they were or what caused the brawl.

Costa shared the video on his social media with a message for Khamzat Chimaev, who was his original opponent. The crowd booed Costa on Saturday.

He had to pull out of the pay-per-view event because of a staph infection that needed three surgeries and put him in the hospital for a while. He showed some pictures of his healing elbow after he was off the card.

Chimaev beat Usman by majority decision and kept winning. Costa’s last fight was in August 2022, when he beat former champion Luke Rockhold at UFC 278