What’s Next for ‘The Eraser’ After His First Win in the Light Heavyweight Division?
The newest light heavyweight fighter in the division, ‘The Eraser’ Paulo Costa, just had his best performance in recent memory this past Saturday at UFC 327. The Brazilian fighter fought Azamat Murzakanov in the co-main event, where the former showed real promise in his first fight at 205 pounds. Throughout the fight, Costa terrorized his opponent with brutal leg kicks to the head, body, and legs, leading to an eventual TKO on Murzakanov by a leg kick to the head, also having his arm broken earlier in the fight from the brutal kicks. This win for the former middleweight athlete was proof that he can hang with some of the top talent in the Light Heavyweight Division. With such a dominant win now in the books, what could possibly be next for Costa after having moved to a new division?
‘The Eraser’ has never been a shy, timid personality when dealing with other athletes on the roster. Most notably, the fighter has had some major beef in the past with the current UFC Middleweight Champion, ‘Borz’ better known as Khamzat Chimaev. The fighters were supposed to fight one another over two years ago, but the bout was cancelled due to Costa having a staph infection on his elbow. There were also some alleged claims from ‘The Eraser’ that ‘Borz’ was sending crude messages on social media to the former’s girlfriend. Now, after his win at UFC 327, Costa mentioned Chimaev’s name in his post-fight interview as someone he wants next, at middleweight or light heavyweight, hoping to finally settle their beef after all these years. However, ‘The Eraser’ is still quite fresh to his new weight class, so he may need at least another dominant win in his current division before he can get a shot at a champion from his previous one. There’s also a title fight coming up for Chimaev on May 9th against Sean Strickland at UFC 328, so only time will tell until these rivals meet in the octagon.
In the meantime, though, Costa could have a serious chance at a title shot soon in the Light Heavyweight Division. While Carlos Ulberg was also able to secure an impressive KO win against Jiri Prochazka this past Saturday, he may have to vacate his newly acquired belt due to his serious leg injury that was suffered during the fight. That could leave the title wide open for a few top-ranked light heavyweights, including Costa. If an interim title fight were to happen, Costa would most likely need another win in the division before he could fight for gold. Possible opponents that he’d need to beat to get there would be Khalil Rountree Jr. or Jan Blachowicz. A win over either of these fighters could successfully secure Costa a deserving title fight in the near future.
