It received’t be straightforward, however Paulo Costa believes an enormous win over Sean Strickland may put him on the entrance of the road within the middleweight division.
Stepping contained in 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 favourite, but when Costa can pull off the upset, he’ll catapult himself from the again finish of the divisional rankings to the highest. Even then, securing a shot at middleweight gold will likely be no straightforward activity, significantly with the upcoming clash between ex-champion Robert Whittaker and Khamzat Chimaev on June 22.
Nonetheless, Costa stays optimistic that if he can put it on Strickland in The Backyard State, he’ll make a powerful 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 believe [because Strickland] already beat [Israel] Adesanya, if Adesanya beats Dricus [du Plessis], if Sean beats me, he’s going to be subsequent,” Costa said ahead of his fight with Strickland. “However let’s see, we by no means know. I’ve a beef with Adesanya as properly and in opposition to Chimaev, all the pieces can occur. Let’s see Saturday.
“I believe who delivers higher on Saturday goes to step in entrance, it relies upon how the struggle’s going to be. If I knock him out [with] nice model Saturday, and the struggle in [Saudi Arabia between Chimaev and Whittaker] will not be so good, we might be in entrance of them. It relies upon how I’m going to carry out.”
Paulo Costa suggests Robert Whittaker could have a bonus over Khamzat Chimaev
As for a way Costa sees issues enjoying out between Whittaker and Chimaev when the 2 titans descend upon the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ‘The Eraser’ prompt that ‘The Reaper’ will possible carry a bonus, having considerably extra expertise going 5 rounds than the undefeated Chechen monster.
“It’s a tough struggle to foretell,” Costa stated of Whittaker vs. Chimaev. “From what I watched when [former UFC welterweight champion Kamaru] Usman fought Chimaev, I believe with correct camp, I don’t know what number of rounds, even three or 5, Whittaker has some benefit in opposition to Chimaev.”
Whittaker, after all, is coming off a big unanimous decision victory over Paulo Costa at UFC 298 in February. That alone will make it fairly laborious for Costa to leapfrog the Aussie within the title image, however as they are saying in MMA, something can occur.
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