"He's walking right in there against the Terminator" - Chael Sonnen hails "bada**" Luke Rockhold for taking Paulo Costa fight
While discussing the upcoming matchup between Paulo Costa and Luke Rockhold, Chael Sonnen took the time to praise "bada**" Rockhold for stepping up to fight somebody like the Brazilian.
The former middleweight champion is currently enduring the worst run of his mixed martial arts career. Since his knockout loss to Michael Bisping in 2016, the 37-year-old has fought just three times, earning a TKO win over David Branch and losing back-to-back clashes against Yoel Romero and Jan Blachowicz.
In a video posted to his YouTube channel, Chael Sonnen dissected the 185lb bout, expressing his admiration for Luke Rockhold for volunteering himself to face the dangerous Costa:
"You have two guys that everybody's scared of. There's a way to beat Paulo Costa, but only one guy has showed us it [at middleweight]... And there's a way to beat Luke, but you got to have incredible power and you got to find that spot, now that happens to be two tools that Paulo Costa has, it's just an interesting fight..."
"But Luke has also been out for a meaningful period of time, he's walking right in there against the Terminator. I really think that's the part of Luke Rockhold's story that people don't talk about... That dude is a straight up bada**, Luke doesn't get in there with anybody easy."
Despite admitting that a win over the former champion in Rockhold would be huge for the Brazilian's career, Sonnen continued to question the reason for this middleweight brawl taking place.
Check out what 'The American Gangster' had to say about the forthcoming fight in the video below:
What does a win do for Paulo Costa?
After suffering his first two losses in the sport back-to-back, Paulo Costa now finds himself scheduled to face the well-rounded Luke Rockhold, but what will a win mean for the 31-year-old Brazilian?
While the former Strikeforce and UFC middleweight champion is currently unranked in the promotion, he is arguably the biggest name in the division outside of Israel Adesanya. Currently sitting at No.6, a win could shoot 'Borrachinha' right back into title contention, potentially setting up huge fights against the elite in the weight class.
UFC 278, headlined by Kamaru Usman's welterweight title fight against Leon Edwards, takes place on August 20 at Salt Lake City's Vivint Arena, and Rockhold vs. Costa will serve as the co-main event for the evening.