Paulo Costa, who pulled out of his fight against Khamzat Chimaev due to a staph infection, is not impressed with the victory the Chechen fighter got over Kamaru Usman, who came on as a substitute at short notice.
“It was bad initially, and after watching it it got even worse,” the Brazilian told MMAJunkie. “The fight was terrible, Khamzat Chimaev looked disgusting. Three terrible rounds. He fought a welterweight who took the fight on short notice – a guy who didn’t even fight at middleweight. Usman is a real welterweight. Hamzat tried to finish him in the first round and couldn’t, and then he got exhausted and gave up. I truly believe Usman beat him in the next two rounds. What else is there to say? He looked terrible.”
“It made me even sadder than before because I thought I could have easily finished that motherf***er off. It was easy money. He’s easy money. He’s such a green and immature fighter. He wasted all his energy in the first round. If he can’t finish his opponent, he gives up. I’m sure if Usman had a couple more weeks to prepare, he would have beaten him. And I’m convinced it was at least a draw.”
The middleweight contender fight, which was the second main event of UFC 294 last weekend, went all three rounds and ended in a majority decision victory for the Chechen fighter by scores of 29-27 twice and 28-28.
At the post-event press conference, UFC head, Dana White, confirmed that Khamzat Chimaev will be the next opponent for current UFC middleweight champion, Sean Strickland, who has publicly indicated his willingness to share the octagon with “Borz.”
Source: https://fighttime.ru/news/item/32959-reaktsiya-paulo-kosty-na-pobedu-khamzata-chimaeva.html?rand=19907
