Israel Adesanya believes Khamzat Chimeav will win against Paulo Costa

• UFC

One of the most intriguing middleweight clashes is less than a few days away; Israel Adesanya will be defending his hard-earned belt against Sean Strickland. Adesanya will be tuning in for the next middleweight fight between Khamzat Chimaev and Paulo Costa; it promises to be a war; both fighters have been inactive for over a year and have a lot to prove on 22nd October.Adesanya fought against Paulo Costa, and based on the experience, he said he is leaning more towards Khamzat Chimaev, expecting him to win.

Chimaev possesses both striking and grappling dominance in a way that many few fighters do; his very presence is enough to mentally break someone down, and it will be interesting to see if Paulo Costa can fight against all odds and shock the MMA world.

Khamzat Chimaev could ask for a title shot if he wins or fight in the welterweight division against Colby Covington or Kamaru Usman.

Israel Adesanya on Chimaev vs Costa

Recently, in a brief interview with MMA Fighting, Israel Adesanya shared his thoughts on Khamzat Chimaev and Paulo Costa; he picks Chimaev over Costa and justifies his selection.

"I don’t know who’s going to win but I think if I’m favoring, I might be favoring Khamzat a little bit more,” Adesanya said as quoted by mmafighting.com. “Because I like new blood. I just made Paulo look easy but trust me, he’s a hard fight, He’s a hard fight but I made him look easy.

But I think I’m rooting for Khamzat more in that fight”. Adesanya wants one more fight: “Ain’t that funny? I’m the one actually pushing for fights. I’m even trying to have one more this year.

We’ll see. Yeah, definitely [might get one more fight this year]. We’ll see”. Since Israel Adesanya is looking forward to fighting one more time before the year ends, it would be fair to assume that he could fight against the winner of Chimaev vs Costa.