“Two is the number”- Chael Sonnen backs Paulo Costa to compete for the title with two more wins
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Paulo Costa- Chael Sonnen
Chael Sonnen believes Paulo Costa could get a title shot soon. Paulo is currently ranked #4 in the middleweight division and is one of the top fighters in the UFC. Paulo has a professional record of 13 wins and 2 losses and has only lost to the Middleweight champion Israel Adesanya and middleweight fighter Marvin Vettori. Vettori is currently ranked #3 and fought Costa at UFC Fight Night after Costa failed to make weight. Vettori won the fight despite fighting at 205 and has the potential to fight for the title soon.
Paulo Costa missed his weight by 26 pounds and had to give up 20% of his fight purse to fight Marvin. Paulo looked terrible in the fight and lost the fight via a unanimous decision. After 5 rounds, the judges scored the fight 48–46, 48–46, 48–46 in favor of Marvin Vettori. Paulo will return to the octagon at UFC 277 to face former UFC champion, Luke Rockhold.
Many experts have advised Paulo to move up a weight class and fight at light-middleweight. However, Paulo will fight Luke at 185. Chael Sonnen also criticized this decision and even claimed that Paulo will miss weight again. Chael also talked about Paulo winning the fight and, according to Chael, Costa can get a title shot if he wins 2 more fights. In his recent video, Chael said: “I can guarantee one win will not get him the belt opportunity. Two wins might. I am sure two is the number, but I’m not positive one isn’t”.
“I could not do to Luke what Khabib did “- Chael Sonnen reacts to Khabib Nurmagomedov grappling with Luke Rockhold
Chael Sonnen has reacted to Khabib Nurmagomedov dominating Luke Rockhold in grappling. A video was posted by Luke Rockhold in which he was seen training with former lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and Khabib is seen in control while Luke struggles to engage with him. Chael reacted to the video in his recent video and appreciated Khabib for his excellent skills.
Chael Sonnen appreciated Khabib but pointed out that the video was only 30 seconds long and the training session would be longer than that. Chael, however, claimed that Khabib did to Luke what he himself could not do.
Reacting to the video, Chael said: “A training video came out of Khabib on the ground with Luke Rockhold. Now, it’s not fair to do these. Because we do not know what the context is. It could have been 10 minutes of fair and straight up. Luke’s fresh, Khabib’s fresh. A few minutes later, someone grabs the other for 30 seconds. We just don’t know. Either way, I saw Khabib in one of these situations that I’ve only heard about. I’ve never seen Khabib except in competition against a 155er. I could not do to Luke what Khabib did to Luke.”
Luke Rockhold is training with Khabib for his fight against Paulo Costa at UFC 277 and as Luke prepares to return to the octagon after 3 years, it would be exciting to see how the former middleweight champion will perform in the octagon after such a long period of inactivity.
Also Read: WATCH: Luke Rockhold gets manhandled by former champ Khabib Nurmagomedov in wrestling practice
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Sparsh Sharma
(196 Articles Published)