Paulo Costa will look to return back to the win column when he takes on Sean Strickland at UFC 302 this weekend.
Paulo Costa’s Journey to UFC
Costa started his MMA career off as a professional being able to start off with 3 straight wins. These wins came against Teo Esteves, Ademilson Borges Durate and Fabio Moreira. These wins were enough for the UFC to invite him to the The Ultimate Fighter Brazil season. During that season Paulo Costa was able to submit 5-0 José Roberto Rocha before losing due to split-decision to Marcio Alexandre Jr.
After the TUF Paulo Costa was not offered a UFC contract. Instead Costa had to go back to fighting in the regional scene. In his first fight since the season, he was able to secure the victory against Gerson Conceição after the first round due to doctor stoppage. Paulo Costa would then secure another first-round finish this time due to punches against Wagner Silva before he got signed to Jungle Fights.
In Paulo Costa’s first fight in Jungle Fights, he went up against Bruno Assis. Costa was able to secure another KO/TKO victory in the first round of his debut fight. Costa would be able to follow this up with a rear naked choke victory against Eduardo Ramon and another first-round stoppage against Adriano Balby to be able to secure his ticket into the UFC.
Paulo Costa’s UFC Career
Paulo Costa started his journey in the UFC against Garreth McLellan. Costa was able to get the finish in the first round by punches to get off to the perfect start. Oluwale Bamgbose would be next to face Costa. However, he would end up getting stopped in the 2nd round keeping the winning ways going. This would lead to a match-up against Johny Hendricks. Paulo Costa would be able to get the stoppage in the 2nd round.
Paulo Costa would then be able to face Uriah Hall. Once again be able to find the finish to get the victory in the 2nd round due to punches. This led Costa to be able to have a title eliminator against Yoel Romero. Paulo Costa would be able to get the decision victory to be able to challenge Israel Adesanya for the UFC Middleweight Title.
However, Adesanya would hand Costa his first defeat being able to defeat Costa due to TKO in the 2nd round. Paulo Costa would then return to face Marvin Vettori. Vettori would be able to punish Costa and get the decision victory. However, Paulo Costa would then try and get back into the win column when he came up against Luke Rockhold. Paulo was able to get back into the win column when he got a decision victory. However, he would then end up losing to Robert Whittaker last time out at UFC 298.
Sean Strickland Match-up
Paulo Costa is coming into this match-up with a 4-inch reach disadvantage. This will prove a problem as Costa prefers to stand and trade with his opponent. Costa will have to try and work his way in to be able to land the damaging shots. Costa lands 6.20 significant strikes per minute which is a lot higher than a lot of fighters in the UFC. Paulo Costa is able to also land at an accuracy rate of 58% meaning he lands more than half of the punches he throws. However, while he lands more than he throws he also absorbs 6.38 strikes per minute. Sean Strickland is also a very high-paced fighter being able to land 5.91 strikes per minute.
Costa is able to defend 47 per cent of strikes he faces. Paulo Costa will need to have a better defence this weekend when he comes up against Strickland due to Strickland having a high output as well. Costa may be beneficial to try and get the fight to the ground as he has a takedown percentage of 75% while it is not in his plans naturally this may surprise Strickland. However, Strickland has a good takedown defence of 77% so it will not be easy.
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
