Paulo Costa wants a win Saturday if hopes to make an necessary callout.
The one-time middleweight title challenger faces Roman Kopylov on Saturday within the co-main occasion of UFC 318 in New Orleans and he enters the bout with loads of motivation. Not solely is he mired in a 1-4 droop, Costa is already looking forward to a struggle with Khamzat Chimaev and he is aware of if he desires mic time afterward he has to have his hand raised first.
“I wish to struggle [Chimaev] very badly,” Costa mentioned at Wednesday’s UFC 318 media day. “I wish to harm him. It doesn’t matter if he received that struggle or not. It doesn’t matter. We have to struggle. He speak very unhealthy issues about me, in my woman’s Instagram DMs, so that is completely private.
“I really feel offended simply to listen to his title, so we have to struggle. We’re younger, we’re going to be on line, so I’m going to do my greatest Saturday. … I’m fairly certain I’m going to get the victory and I’m going to name his title, it doesn’t matter whether or not he wins or not. This struggle simply won’t occur if he retires.”
Chimaev is presently set to problem middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis in the principle occasion of UFC 319 on Aug. 16 in Chicago. In eight UFC appearances and 14 professional bouts total, Chimaev has by no means misplaced. That run to the title nearly included a bout with Costa, however an Oct. 21 conflict at UFC 294 was cancelled as a consequence of Costa having an elbow an infection.
The unhealthy blood has by no means subsided and Costa feels the matchup has extra warmth than ever, particularly with the private transgressions Costa alleges Chimaev has dedicated.
“Soiled issues,” Costa mentioned, describing the aforementioned DMs. “Like, ‘You need to search for a greater man,’ one thing like that. Not the type of issues an actual man, assured man would do. Why he message her? Why he didn’t message me as a substitute of her? Coward. He’s a coward.”
Costa has a tall activity forward of him in Kopylov, who’s coming off of back-to-back wins and has received six of his previous seven total. Regardless of Costa’s reputation, his in-cage outcomes have left one thing to be desired as he has only one win since 2019 and has solely scored one knockout since 2018.
He didn’t decide to a decide for the UFC 319 important occasion, however thinks Chimaev may very well be in for a tough time if he doesn’t end du Plessis early.
“It’s arduous to foretell one thing, however I feel Dricus is extra stable,” Costa mentioned. “He can resist the very first rush from Chimaev, ‘Gourmand Chen Chen,’ after which we by no means know after the third spherical how Chimaev can keep, maintain his power. I feel that is my query.”
