Paulo Costa weighs in on Dricus du Plessis' championship reign, talks return timeline and potential future fights
Paulo Costa recently shared his thoughts on Dricus du Plessis' championship reign and even looked ahead to his own future in the UFC.
In his last octagon outing, the former UFC middleweight title contender squared off against Robert Whittaker in a thrilling middleweight clash at UFC 298. Whittaker got his hand raised via unanimous decision, but Costa delivered a decent performance considering his lengthy layoff.
In a recent interview with Submission Radio, Costa discussed du Plessis' reign as a champion. He claimed not to have seen 'Stillknocks' fight:
''I didn't watch the fight yet. I need to watch some fights, I'm not a hard UFC watcher. I just watched some some fights, very specific fights but I think it's hard to say something about him. I don't have any concept yet, I just think people say bad things about him even right now but I think he did what he's supposed to do, he knocked out Whittaker.''
Catch Paulo Costa's comments below (17:47):
'Borrachinha' also discussed his return and possible future fights (19:13):
''If the guys offer me to fight for the title right now, I would, of course. But I just look for my next. I mean, this fight against Whittaker is a fight that I wanted to do years ago, and I still want to fight him again in the future. I want to rematch against everybody that I lost, against Adesanya, against Marvin. Strickland is a great fight to do.''
Costa added:
''I can't wait to come back. I told UFC that I'll be ready to fight again in May.''
Paulo Costa wants Kamaru Usman next
After his loss to Robert Whittaker, many have called for the previously booked fight between Paulo Costa and Khamzat Chimaev to be re-rescheduled. They were supposed to fight last year, but Costa had to withdraw due to a staph infection. As such, Chimaev faced Kamaru Usman on short notice.
Costa has now set his sights on Usman and wants to finish the former welterweight champion. He wrote on X:
"Usman 185 lbs looks interesting. Gourmet Chen Chen couldn’t finish him even on short notice. I might"