Paulo Costa turned back the clock on Saturday with a vintage performance to beat Roman Kopylov in the UFC 318 co-main event.
A nasty display of kicking power and overall striking acumen allowed Costa to just chop down Kopylov round after round. He came close to a finish in the second round after scoring a knockdown but Kopylov showed enough will power to survive, although he knew the fight had slipped away from him.
The judges scored the fight 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28 with Costa getting the win.
“It was a tough moment for me,” Costa said after coming into the fight off two straight losses. “I put a lot of work, a lot of work on my mind. It’s not good to get some losses. My strategy, my game plan was to stay here and stand up with him.”
Costa opened the fight with a variety of kicks to the legs and body before going back up top to the head with his punching combinations. Kopylov fired back with some solid combinations of his own but also doing his best to avoid any of the big haymakers coming from Costa.
Costa was absolutely abusing Kopylov’s lead leg with kicks and that’s when he uncorked a massive punch that sent the Russian’s mouthpiece flying. Kopylov was forced to dive for a leg with Costa dropping hammer fists in succession in an attempt to get the finish.
Kopylov held on and reset to start the second round but he just couldn’t get much offense going with Costa continuing to dig to the legs with kicks and then punishing him with punches to the head and body. Midway through the round, Costa unloaded a huge right hand that stumbled Kopylov and sent him backwards towards the cage.
Kopylov was stuck in the mud, unable to do much of anything and he was just eating a barrage of strikes from the one-time middleweight title challenger.
With only five minutes remaining, Kopylov didn’t seem to shift into desperation mode despite being down two rounds. He did get a little more active but Kopylov wasn’t threatening Costa enough to really back him off.
Kopylov did finally manage to sting Costa with a hard right hand late in the fight but he just didn’t follow up to potentially overwhelm him. As time was running out, Costa managed to find a home for another stiff right hand to help secure the victory.
Back in the win column, Costa wasted no time turning his attention to his old rival Khamzat Chimaev, who he claimed during fight week sent direct messages to his wife on social media, which only added fuel to the fire when it came to a desire to fight the Chechen mauler.
“Everybody knows I hate that guy, everybody knows who, that motherf*cker [Khamzat] Chimaev,” Costa shouted. “He’s a big assh*le. He says bad things about me about [my wife]. He is a coward. I’m going to chase you. I will not stop until I get to you.”
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