Paulo Costa is confident he will take out Khamzat Chimaev in their highly-anticipated matchup at UFC 294.
In September 2022, Chimaev’s climb in the welterweight rankings was stopped when he missed weight by seven and a half pounds. As a result, ‘Borz’ lost his main event opportunity against Nate Diaz and fought Kevin Holland at a catchweight.
Chimaev’s drastic weight miss frustrated the UFC brass, leading to him likely staying at middleweight for the foreseeable future. On October 21, ‘Borz’ returns to 185 pounds for a main card bout against Costa at UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi.
Costa recently posted a series of temporary Instagram stories where he had this to say about Chimaev:
“Gourmet Chen Chen has no chance, zero, no chance. I’m gonna destroy him… I’m coming to f*ck you in your f*cking house, motherf*cker. Training hard every single day, every single day. I have no days off. Look at this face. Look right here, gourmet Chen Chen. The man who is gonna kill you.”
Costa last fought on August 2022, defeating Luke Rockhold by unanimous decision. Since then, the Brazilian fan favorite renegotiated with the UFC before signing a new contract. He was scheduled to fight Ikram Aliskerov on July 27 before the bout was scratched for the matchup against Chimaev.
Meanwhile, Chimaev hasn’t fought since his win against Kevin Holland. Earlier in his UFC tenure, ‘Borz’ fought twice at middleweight, securing wins inside the distance against John Phillips and Gerald Meerschaert. He now looks to skyrocket himself in the 185-pound rankings by taking out number seven-ranked Costa.
Paulo Costa claims he’s Khamzat Chimaev’s biggest nightmare
Since his UFC debut in July 2020, Khamzat Chimaev has been the boogeyman at welterweight and middleweight. With that said, Paulo Costa is confident that he will be the one to give Chimaev his first UFC loss. Costa recently doubled down on his threats to ‘Borz’ by posting a clip of his temporary Instagram story series to his primary feed with the caption saying:
“I’m your bigger NIGHTMARE. BLF is coming to erase you 🧢🧁 gourmet Chen Chen”
Chimaev has a massive opportunity at UFC 294. The middleweight division doesn’t have an abundance of top contenders besides Israel Adesanya’s rivals, Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis. Therefore, ‘Borz’ could put himself in a number one contender fight with a win against Costa.
