Paulo Costa confident he could KO Robert Whittaker or Yoel Romero inside 2 rounds

Back in June, in the main event of UFC 225, UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker stepped into the cage with Yoel Romero. Though Romero was not eligible to win the title due to his failure to make the 185-pound limit for middleweight title fights, the pair delivered an absolutely unforgettable fight, pelting each other with heavy artillery for five wild rounds. While this fight impressed most onlookers, however, it didn’t impress rising contender Paulo Costa.

Speaking to MMA Fighting, Paulo Costa assured that, if he’d fought the version of Robert Whittaker and Yoel Romero that fought at UFC 225, he’d have stopped both — before the third round.

”I didn’t like the Whittaker and Romero fight,” Costa said. “I thought to myself, if I were in that cage I would have knocked out both of them because they had the opportunity to connect clean strikes in the face and no one went down. If it was me, I would have knocked them out way sooner. It wouldn’t even get to the third round.”

Costa, of course, is currently linked to a UFC 230 showdown with Romero, so he’ll soon have the chance to back this comment up.

As for Romero’s past trouble with the scale, Costa invites him to miss weight again when they fight. In fact, he hopes he Romero misses his target. If the Cuban does, after all, Costa is likely to receive 20 or 30% of his purse.

”The fact that he has trouble make weight cheers me up,” Costa said. “It’s 20 percent more going to my pocket. Everything I want is him to miss weight. Get there heavy and give me my 20 or 30 percent. Thirty is even better. That’s all I want. Yoel Romero, eat a lot and get there heavy, please. I want your 30 percent.”

Do you think Paulo Costa can take out Yoel Romero at UFC 230?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 7/31/2018.