Paulo Costa confident he has way to beat 'anxious' Khamzat Chimaev: 'This is pretty easy'
Costa (15-4 MMA, 7-4 UFC) is irate at Chimaev for allegedly sending his girlfriend "nasty" DMs, and is dead set on fighting him after their UFC 294 booking fell through. The former title challenger returned to the win column with a unanimous decision win over Roman Kopylov this past Saturday at UFC 318.
Chimaev (14-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) challenges middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis Aug. 16 in the UFC 319 headliner from Chicago. Win or lose, Costa wants a piece of Chimaev, and is confident he has the blueprint to take out the undefeated phenom.
"This is pretty easy, and I'm going to break down this, OK?," Costa told Submission Radio. "I can see this very clear in my mind right now, how it's going to happen. He'll be very stressful, anxious, and anger against me. Once the fight start, he will come, faint some punches, and then he going to shoot on my legs. So, I'm going to spend some time defending his takedown, he's going to try to push, push, push, and I think after one minute, maybe one and a half, he will be exhausted.
"His arms and shoulders will be heavy. Heavy like a heavyweight. Then he will realize he don't put my back on the mat, and he will be heavy and slow Maybe I'm not going to finish him in the very first round. I'm going to let him gas out everything that he had until he be like a dead man walking in the second round. Then I'm going to hit his belly as much as I can with front kicks, with body shots until I see he wants to give up. When I see that, I'm going to start to hit his face and make him uglier than he is."
Leading up to his fight with Kopylov, Costa couldn't contain his emotions when asked about Chimaev during his media obligations. He sent a stern message to "Borz."
"I'm coming for you, you know that," Costa concluded. "I will not lie to anyone. I don't need that. You know who I am, and I know who the f*ck c*nt you are. I'm coming for you."
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