Coach Believes Israel Adesanya – Paulo Costa Will be The “Greatest Middleweight Title Fight in History”

It remains to be seen when we’ll see Israel Adesanya and Paulo Costa throw hands. But, if and when we do, Costa’s head coach says we’ll witness the greatest middleweight title fight in the history of MMA.

Eric Albarracin has high hopes for Adesanya vs. Costa

As this is being written, there’s no official date for a Adesanya – Costa bout. But, the fight is expected to happen sometime later this year.

After Costa (13-0) scored a decision win over Yoel Romero last August, he was next in line to face the champ, Adesanya. But, after Costa was sidelined with a bicep injury, Adesanya pushed for a bout with Romero.

Adesanya faced Romero in March, and although the fight was widely panned, he emerged with a decision win. So, now the MMA world is waiting to see when “The Last Stylebender” will battle “Borrachinha”.

Well, recently Costa’s coach, Eric Albarracin, spoke with BJ Penn.com. While discussing the expected Adesanya – Costa fight, he said this.

“Paulo Costa vs Adesanya will be the greatest middleweight title fight in history. These two hate each other, they are at each other’s throats,” Albarracin said. “

When we went to UFC 243, Adesanya called him Ricky Martin, and he does look like Ricky Martin but he hits like Mike Tyson. Adesanya will not step out of the cage there, Costa will erase him.”

Yup. There’s a lot to like about this match-up, and not just because Adesanya and Costa have quite the feud going.

Both fighters are ridiculously dangerous strikers, and Costa likes to pressure, rather than counter strike like Romero does. So, there’s good reasons to believe the fight won’t be short on action.

Albarracin sees Costa becoming a champ-champ

That fight aside, recently Costa reported that he plans to move-up to light-heavyweight and that he intends to do so soon. The plan being that Costa hopes to beat Adesanya, and then go onto become the UFC’s latest champ-champ.

While talking about that possibility, Albarracin said the following:

“Paulo does cut a lot of weight. I could see him going up to 205, he’s going to be my next champ-champ,”

There you have it. It’s not hard to tell that the hulking Costa cuts a lot of weight to make 185, so, his plans to make a run at 205 aren’t shocking.

But, when you consider Costa is only 6’0 feet tall and has a reach of 72 inches, you have to wonder how that might play against larger and or taller light-heavyweights.

The 6’4 tall Jon Jones has a ridiculously long reach of 84.5 inches. The 6’4 tall Dominick Reyes has a 77 inch reach. The 6’2 tall Blachowciz has a reach of 78 inches.