Paulo Costa likes the idea of fighting former UFC middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis next.
Du Plessis (23-3 MMA, 9-1 UFC) is fresh off a title loss to Khamzat Chimaev less than two weeks ago at UFC 319 in Chicago. Costa was rather critical of Chimaev’s heavy grapple approach, and hopes to settle his beef with “Borz” as soon as possible.
Back in the win column with a win over Roman Kopylov at UFC 318, Costa (15-4 MMA, 7-4 UFC) was asked if he’d rather face Du Plessis or rematch Israel Adesanya (24-5 MMA, 13-5 UFC), who knocked him out in their title fight in September 2020.
“Dricus better because he is fresh from the belt,” Costa told Submission Radio. “He’s so unpredictable. He’s a tough guy to fight, to be honest. Khamzat Chimaev knew that – that’s why he hold him for so long. Even in the fifth round, Dricus was still dangerous, and Chimaev was afraid to fight him. He just held the guy for 25 minutes. Horrible.”
Costa assured that he plans on competing one more time in 2025 before the end of the year.
“Potentially (November, December), that would be a great fight,” Costa said of facing Du Plessis. “A huge fight. I stopped fighting the UFC. Now we are friends. Now we are partners. I said this to Hunter (Campbell), and Dana (White). They’re going to bring a good match, a fun match. I’m 100 percent on that.”
