Whats Next For Paulo Costa?

Paulo “The Eraser” Costa has been widely tipped as the hottest prospect in the UFC middleweight division and he is still without an opponent but is eager to get back into the octagon and climb the rankings ladder.

Born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Costa grew up fighting and training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Despite being so young, “The Eraser” already participated in more than 40 championships, winning almost all of them. The secret of his success is that he has trained since his childhood. He competed when he was 13 and has the support of his family. And he has an older brother “who will be known as a great jiu-jitsu fighter”.

The Brazilian made his pro début in 2012 and in two years was 4-0, he was given a place on The Ultimate Fighter Brazil and was a part of team Wanderlei Silva but lost a decision in his second fight. Costa then went back to FTF and won the middleweight title before being signed for Jungle Fight. The middleweight won his next four fights making him 8-0, he also became Jungle Fights middleweight champion and defended the belt before he got the call all MMA fighters dream of, the call to the UFC.

“The Eraser” came into the UFC with a lot of hype behind him, being the size of a light heavyweight and having Mike Tyson like punching power many people were interested to see how Costa would do in UFC, and was intrigued to see if Costa could decorate the octagon with his new opponents like he had been with his lesser experienced opponents he had faced in the other organisations where he had won seven of his eight fights by K.O/TKO.

Garreth McLellan was the 26-year-olds first opponent inside the UFC and inside a minute and a half Costa had TKO’d another opponent proving the hype was real and he earns himself a performance of the night bonus. Just three months later Costa took his second fight inside MMA’s greatest proving ground. This time he was against fellow physical specism Owuwale Bamgbose, both guys famed for their ferocious fists met in the centre of the octagon, the fans were treated to a crazy first round and in the second round Costa had overpowered Bamgbose and earned himself another TKO victory. post fight with Brian Stann, Costa said ” Thank you, everyone, I did my best and I want to thank everyone that came out here. Bamgbose is a tough guy he moves around a lot and I knew he was going to be like that but I knew my right hand would land. I think I’m ready for a top 10 guy”.

November 4th, 2017 Costa got the high profile fight he had wanted. He was faced with former UFC welterweight champion Johny Hendricks. Costa looked like he was double the size of Hendricks but was somewhat respectful knowing that “Big Rigg” can end a fight with one shot. But once again in the second round, Costa started battering Hendricks around the octagon and earned another TKO victory in great style proving that even against the top guys he is still effective and won’t shy away from his dominating style.

Costa now has an 11-0 record and is showing no signs of slowing down, rumours of a fight with Derek Brunson circled but nothing came of it. Costa is now ranked 14th in the middleweight division so a fight with a top 10 opponent is surely next. Vitor Belfort, Kelvin Gastelum and Chris Weidman are all possibilities but one thing for sure, whoever it is had better be ready as “The Eraser” is coming and he will one day be the UFC middleweight champion.