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UFC middleweight star Paulo Costa is still after longtime rival Khamzat Chimaev following his loss to Robert Whittaker at UFC 298. Despite the setback, Costa seems to still be a hot commodity for the UFC, drawing heavy praise from Dana White. As such, it seems ‘Borrachinha’ is hoping to reignite the possibility of facing ‘Borz’ in the Octagon.
Paulo Costa is after Khamzat Chimaev again
In fact, Costa has started the trash talk once again and is now trying to make Chimaev accept the fight by claiming the Swede is scared of facing Borrachinha in the Octagon.
“He needs to stop running,” Costa said in an interview with Submission Radio (transcribed by MMA Fighting). “He needs to have balls to face me. For a long time, long time, this guy just avoids these fights. He has no balls. If the guy’s not pushing him, he has no balls to fight him. He wants to fight easy fights, he doesn’t want to fight guys like me or [Robert] Whittaker or somebody else like that. He wants to fight guys with no wrestling, no jiu-jitsu game, no grappling, something like that. No balls.”
Kamaru Usman is the backup plan
Nevertheless, if the match against Chimaev ends up not happening next, Paulo Costa already has a plan B ready go. He recently started calling out Kamaru Usman over social media as well. In the Brazilian’s opinion, both athletes are coming off losses and could use a win to rebound, so Borrachinha believes the pairing would benefit both athletes in their current situations.
“I think he’s coming from a loss as well, I came from a loss,” Costa said. “Me and him need to put a win in the records. I think he already did everything that he showed to do at welterweight, so I think it’s time. He’s not so young as well, I think he’s 37, 36, I don’t know, somewhere around that. I think it’s time for him to move to middleweight.
“He did once against Chimaev, ‘Gourmet Chen Chen,’ but it was not the whole process, he just got short notice and came up to middleweight weighing like a welterweight. So I think this fight makes sense and he’s a powerful guy. He has different skills on the ground, wrestling skills, takedowns, and striking, I think it’s the fight to make and to put one of in the line again to the top.”
Paulo Costa has lost 3 of his last 4 fights
In his last outing, Paulo Costa (14-3) dropped a unanimous decision to Robert Whittaker just last weekend, at UFC 298. The loss drops Borrachinha’s record to 1-3 in his last four outings, with defeats to then champion Israel Adesanya and contender Marvin Vettori, respectively in September 2020 and October 2021.
The 32-year-old’s only win during this time is an August 2022 unanimous decision win over former middleweight champion Luke Rockhold.
Meanwhile, Khamzat Chimaev (13-0) is still undefeated and rides a seven-fight win streak in the Octagon, which also includes a majority decision victory over the aforementioned Usman in his most recent outing, in October 2023.