Paulo Costa hasn’t changed his ultimate goal after his return to the win column at UFC 318.
Costa battled it out for three rounds this past Saturday night in New Orleans to defeat Roman Kopylov in a much-needed unanimous decision. The win snapped the Brazilian’s two-fight skid, giving the one-time UFC middleweight title challenger just his second win of his past six appearances.
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Costa, 34, made it clear before the fight he still hopes to eventually get his hands on his old rival Khamzat Chimaev, whom he was supposed to fight in October 2023. Speaking on Monday’s edition of “The Ariel Helwani Show,” Costa revealed the private back-and-forth his longtime girlfriend, Tamara, had with Chimaev ahead of their canceled bout.
“He said, ‘Your man is not a man enough. He likes men,'” Costa claimed. “He sent her a picture of [Israel] Adesanya and me, he said, ‘Look, he lost to Adesanya. He likes Black men. You should look for a better man than him.’ Something like that, with no sense.
“Of course, she sends some message back, ‘Don’t involve my family in this business. It’s not about us because you never involve family in this. It’s between you and Paulo. This is disrespectful. This is not the kind of thing that a man should do. If you want to talk to Paulo, this is not about me. It’s not my business. This is only business. Take care of your problems with Paulo.’ She said something like that.
“I hate this motherf***er. I hate this guy. I want to fight him. I want to take everything he has.”
Unfortunately for Costa, a nasty staph infection on his elbow became dire enough to require surgery two weeks before his originally scheduled fight with Chimaev. As a result, former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman stepped into the bout on short notice and ultimately lost a majority decision against the undefeated middleweight contender.
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In Chimaev’s next fight, he’ll challenge for the middleweight title against champion Dricus du Plessis at UFC 319 on Aug. 16. Costa said he will be in attendance in Chicago on that night, and he predicts Chimaev will come up short against “DDP” after gassing out as the fight progresses.
That same strategy is also how he sees himself beating Chimaev, should the two ever book another fight.
“I truly believe I’m one of the worst opponents for him, because I’m strong,” Costa said. “I never go back[ward]. I have strong hips, strong legs. I can defend takedowns very well. And I’m going to make a hell of a fight for him.
“I think me and Dricus is a kind of perfect fighter to beat him. I think Dricus has a kind of same style [as me], same body shape that are going to compromise his work. Chimaev is still very immature. He fights like an immature guy. Nobody rushes for a title fight, or five rounds against a very strong man like Dricus or me. He’s going to do that because he’s immature. He cannot compose himself and keep his base because he’s emotional. He acts like a kid. I don’t know what’s his problem.”
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Regarding his own confidence levels, Costa admits he’s still finding his way back to his best self after the Kopylov win. Before his title loss against Adesanya in 2020, Costa had finished all but one of his 13 opponents.
Despite the great performance against Kopylov, Costa expects he’ll only get better with more fights from here on out.
“I’m still getting this confidence back,” Costa said. “I need more fights. I need one more, two more, to get 100% of my confidence back, because I could finish this fight against Kopylov. That first [knockdown], when he fell and got up on his feet, I was — I don’t know if I [went hard enough for the finish]. I will keep at the pace, [I was thinking] maybe it’s not the right moment to go.
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“But there was a good moment to go because he was rocked, still groggy, figuring out what happened. It was a clean shot. Clean straight in his mouth. He felt that. He was in kind of survival mode. I didn’t take too many advantages of that. I could, but my confidence was not so good to do that.”