After losing to Israel
Adesanya in a middleweight title bout last September, Paulo Costa
has been staying in shape while he awaits word on his next opponent
from the UFC.
According to Costa´s manager, Wallid Ismail, Robert
Whittaker is the target.
“No. 1 against No. 2, that’s the fight to be made,” Ismail told
Sherdog.com. “UFC wants it and we want it. We have
a [preliminary] agreement about it.”
Alex Prates, Whittaker’s coach, also mentioned a preliminary
agreement with the UFC to Sherdog, but he did not confirm the
opponent.
“Robert never chooses opponents,” Prates said. “[It] doesn’t matter
if it will be Adesanya, Costa or [Marvin] Vettori. The only thing
Whitaker cares about is that UFC promised him a fight for the belt
next. If it will be a linear or interim [belt], he doesn’t care.
But it has to be for the title.”
In the meantime, Costa is training hard and adding new tools to his
game. On Friday, he published a video on his YouTube channel where
he and wrestling coach Eric Albarracin visited the Pitbull Brothers
academy in Rio Grande Do Norte, Brazil. There, Costa learned some
karate movements with Mano Santana, head coach of Bellator
two-division champion Patricio
Freire.
During the video, Freire arrives at the academy and speaks to
“Borrachinha.” The video also received praise from one of the
most respected Shotokan Karate masters in Brazil, Vinicio Anthony,
who was the head coach of Vitor
Belfort and Lyoto
Machida in MMA.
“That could be a turning point in his career. Karate is the best
art in distance control, exactly where he got lost against
Adesanya,” Anthony said. “‘Borrachinha’ is a monster on the ground,
and I witnessed that with my own eyes when he helped Belfort in a
camp. Mano Santana is a phenomenal trainer, and if he teaches Costa
to use karate distance, not only to attack, but to get the right
distance to take Adesanya down, a rematch could be a completely
different fight.
“Vitor Belfort and Patricio Pitbull are great examples of jiu-jitsu
black belts that added karate to their game and changed totally
their MMA game. But of course, first Costa must face another
monster, which is Robert Whitaker, who is also a great karate
fighter. The most important point is that he was humble enough to
open his mind and add new tools to his arsenal.”