- Paulo Costa is certain a fight with Kamaru Usman is what he needs at this point
- “Borrachinha” addressed his feud with Khamzat Chimaev and why he doesn’t want to fight “Borz” at the moment
Paulo Costa has laid out the reasons why he thinks he should be facing Kamaru Usman next instead of Khamzat Chimaev following his loss to Robert Whittaker at UFC 298.
It makes sense
Speaking to Submission Radio, “Borrachinha” explained his case for becoming a perfect matchup for Usman. According to Costa, the fight “makes sense” as he and “The Nigerian Nightmare” are both coming off a loss and it’s about time for Usman to officially move up to middleweight.
“He comes from a loss as well, I come from a loss. So, yes, me and him need to put a win in the records,” Costa said. “I think he did already everything that he should have, everything he should at welterweight, so I think it’s time. He’s not so young as well, he’s like, 37, 36, something around that. I think it’s time for him to move to middleweight. He did it once against [Khamzat] Chimaev, ‘Gourmet Chechen.’ But it was not the whole process. He just got a short notice and came up to middleweight weighing like welterweight. I think this fight makes sense. He’s kind of a powerful guy. He has different skills on the ground, wrestling skills, takedowns and striking. I think this is the fight to make to put one of us in the line again at the top.”
Khamzat needs to grow balls first
It can be recalled that Costa and Chimaev have long been feuding. However, a fight between the two has yet to materialize to this day. For the Brazilian, he might still consider facing “Borz” in the future but Usman makes more sense at this point. More importantly, Costa said Chimaev needs to stop ducking the top middleweights first before they talk about a potential fight.
“He needs to stop running. He needs to have balls to face me. For a long time long time this guy just avoid this fight, he has no balls. If the guys don’t push him, he has no balls to fight me. He want to fight easy fights, he don’t want to fight guys like me, Whitaker or somebody else like that. He want to fight guys with no wrestling, no jiu-jitsu game, no grappling,” Costa said of Chimaev.
As it stands, Costa has lost three of his last four trips to the Octagon. However, he is still one of the top contenders in the middleweight division. On the other hand, Usman has now gone winless in his last three fights, twice to Leon Edwards and the latest was a decision loss to Chimaev.
While Costa vs. Usman indeed makes sense, the decision will still be up to the UFC matchmakers.
Watch Costa’s full interview below:
