UFC 294: Paulo Costa foresees first round knockout win against Khamzat Chimaev

• UFC

The next middleweight battle between Paulo Costa and Khamzat Chimaev promises to make a lot of noise. It is undoubtedly going to be one of the most explosive fights of the year; Chimaev is always in the hunt to ‘smash’ his opponents; Paulo Costa recognizes the explosiveness Chimaev carries with himself and is ready to adjust his fighting style accordingly.

Both fighters have been inactive for quite a while now, and fans are eagerly waiting for their return; October does seem to be quite far from the present day, but time flies, and in no time, we will be witnessing one of the most exciting matches of the year.

It’s a crucial decider for both middleweights, as a win from here could potentially lead to a title shot; Paulo Costa isn’t really interested in showcasing his grappling/ground game because he wants to be fire against fire and knock him out in the very first round.

Paulo Costa on fighting Khamzat Chimaev

Recently on the MMA Hour, the middleweight contender Paulo Costa shared his thoughts on fighting Khamzat Chimaev and predicted a first round knockout. “You know what’s interesting, because I want that fight so bad — a lot, I want a lot that fight.

Dana [White] wants a lot that fight. The audience wants that fight. But not Chimaev,” Costa said, as quoted by mmafighting.com. “Chimaev doesn’t want that fight, so he tried hard to get another guy to fight. Leon Edwards, Belal Muhammad, [Kamaru] Usman, he called all these guys — this is crazy — to fight him, and only the guys in the [lower weight] division.

Costa further said: But he’s kind of nuts, because he was not fighting at 170. He’s going to fight at 185, so he was trying to pull up some lighter guys to 185 — you understand? — and not fight a genuine 185er.

I think this fight will be crazy and it’s going to end in the first round,knockout. I will not try to submit him. I’m a black belt but I will not try to submit him. I don’t think he’s going to try to submit me as well. So explosive of a guy, so full of energy. I prefer knockout”.