It won’t be easy, but Paulo Costa believes a big win over Sean Strickland could put him at the front of the line in the middleweight division.
Stepping inside the Octagon for the third time in two years, ‘The Eraser’ will co-headline UFC 302 inside Newark, New Jersey’s Prudential Center when he goes toe-to-toe with former 185-pound titleholder Sean Strickland.
‘Tarzan’ goes into his bout as a greater-than-2-to-1 favorite, but if Costa can pull off the upset, he’ll catapult himself from the back end of the divisional rankings to the top. Even then, securing a shot at middleweight gold will be no easy task, particularly with the upcoming clash between ex-champion Robert Whittaker and Khamzat Chimaev on June 22.
Still, Costa remains optimistic that if he can put it on Strickland in The Garden State, he’ll make a strong case to face the winner of the yet-to-be-announced title tilt between reigning champion Dricus Du Plessis and former two-time titleholder Israel Adesanya.
“I think [because Strickland] already beat [Israel] Adesanya, if Adesanya beats Dricus [du Plessis], if Sean beats me, he’s going to be next,” Costa said ahead of his fight with Strickland. “But let’s see, we never know. I have a beef with Adesanya as well and against Chimaev, everything can happen. Let’s see Saturday.
“I think who delivers better on Saturday is going to step in front, it depends how the fight’s going to be. If I knock him out [with] great style Saturday, and the fight in [Saudi Arabia between Chimaev and Whittaker] is not so good, we can be in front of them. It depends how I’m going to perform.”
Paulo Costa suggests Robert Whittaker will have an advantage over Khamzat Chimaev
As for how Costa sees things playing out between Whittaker and Chimaev when the two titans descend upon the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ‘The Eraser’ suggested that ‘The Reaper’ will likely carry an advantage, having significantly more experience going five rounds than the undefeated Chechen monster.
“It’s a hard fight to predict,” Costa said of Whittaker vs. Chimaev. “From what I watched when [former UFC welterweight champion Kamaru] Usman fought Chimaev, I think with proper camp, I don’t know how many rounds, even three or five, Whittaker has some advantage against Chimaev.”
Whittaker, of course, is coming off a big unanimous decision victory over Paulo Costa at UFC 298 in February. That alone will make it pretty hard for Costa to leapfrog the Aussie in the title picture, but as they say in MMA, anything can happen.
