Sean Strickland's coach backs up 'Tarzan's' recent "bloodbath" comments ahead of Paulo Costa fight: "That's the mentality right now"
Sean Strickland is focusing on leveraging the five-round setting in his upcoming clash with Paulo Costa, scheduled as the co-main event of UFC 302. The upcoming pay-per-view is slated to take place this Saturday at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
The former middleweight champion is coming off a hard-fought split decision loss to Dricus du Plessis at UFC 297 in January, where he relinquished his title. Strickland is anticipating a reminiscent full five-round brawl in his fight against 'Borrachinha'.
During the UFC 302 Countdown episode, the 33-year-old American affirmed his mental readiness to navigate the depths against Costa and emerge as a superior fighter come June 1. In the episode, Strickland boldly predicted a "bloodbath" and vowed to take his opponent into deep waters during the fight.
His coach, Xtreme Couture frontman Erick Nicksick, believes that a five-round fight will favor Strickland and recently backed up his star pupil's statements. During an interview with Submission Radio, he said:
"The five rounds, I think definitely favors us. And that’s the mentality right now, is to try to drag this dude into some deep waters. I’m hoping we can get him out of there by Round 4 or Round 5. But this dude’s tough... It’s going to be up to us to just keep chipping away at him, chipping away at him... That’s the goal." [Quotes via MMA Junkie]
Watch Eric Nicksick's full interview below:
Paulo Costa enlists two Olympic boxers for training ahead of Sean Strickland bout at UFC 302
To ready himself for Sean Strickland's striking-oriented approach, Paulo Costa has sought the expertise of two former Olympic boxers.
As revealed during the UFC 302 Countdown, 'Borrachinha' has teamed up with Kelson Pinto, who participated in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Australia, and Edvaldo Gonzaga, who competed in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Greece, to prepare for the upcoming bout.
Costa noted that the boxers imparted valuable strategies that he believes will greatly benefit him on Saturday night:
"I met Kelson Pinto at the UFC PI when I was killing myself while I trained, and he taught me how to be more efficient...So we are just trying to mix the styles [of Pinto and Gonzaga] to get the best point of each one... Sean Strickland knows how to fight that style. He has a very good jab, he moves forward, he knows how to fight in his very particular stance."
Catch his comments below: