Sean Strickland plans on dragging Paulo Costa to deep waters at UFC 302.
Strickland (28-6 MMA, 15-6 UFC) meets Costa (14-3 MMA, 6-3 UFC) in Saturday’s co-main occasion (pay-per-view/ESPN2/ESPN+) at Prudential Heart in Newark, N.J.
The previous middleweight champion bought a style of a bloody battle when he misplaced his title to Dricus Du Plessis by cut up determination at UFC 297. He envisions one other five-round warfare when he takes on Brazilian powerhouse Costa.
“UFC 302, man, it’s going to be a massacre,” Strickland stated in the course of the UFC 302 Countdown. “I believe that me and Costa, we’re going to go within the deep water. It’s going to be a 25-minute warfare.
“I believe we’re each going to be taking a look at one another in that third, fourth spherical, considering, ‘F*ck, we’ve bought yet another spherical.’ However mentally, as all the time, I’m able to die for what I need, and I believe I’m going to select him aside.”
Strickland’s head coach Eric Nicksick likes that the matchup is 5 rounds, the place he expects his star scholar to excel.
“The 5 rounds, I believe undoubtedly favors us,” Nicksick instructed Submission Radio. “And that’s the mentality proper now, is to attempt to drag this dude into some deep waters. I’m hoping we are able to get him out of there by Spherical 4 or Spherical 5.
“However this dude’s powerful. He’s gritty. He’s sturdy. But it surely’s going to be as much as us to only hold chipping away at him, chipping away at him. That that’s the objective. That’s the objective. I’m not attempting to make a prediction, however I’m simply telling you what we predict out of our athlete, and that’s it.”
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