Paulo Costa calls for fight with Derek Brunson: 'Run away or accept'

Paulo Costa is moving on from a potential showdown with Sean Strickland and has shifted focus to Derek Brunson.

Costa (13-2 MMA, 5-2 UFC) had been angling for a bout with surging contender Strickland, who was recently booked to fight Alex Pereira at UFC 277 in July. That took another highly ranked matchup off the table for Costa.

The Brazilian appears to be itching to get back in the octagon following back-to-back losses against Marvin Vettori and Israel Adesanya. He took to social media with a photo of the UFC’s current official middleweight rankings, attached to a callout of Brunson (via Twitter):

Now it’s time to Derek Brunson runway or accept. Sean gave up. Brunson?

Brunson (23-8 MMA, 14-6 UFC) has yet to respond to Costa’s challenge, but the longtime 185-pound contender has been calling for this fight for several years. Brunson had a five-fight winning streak snapped in a TKO loss to Jared Cannonier at UFC 271 in February, and has recently expressed an eagerness to return to action.