Paulo Costa Believes Chimaev Will Struggle More in Strickland Rematch

Paulo Costa has publicly declared that Khamzat Chimaev would fare even worse in a potential rematch against middleweight champion Sean Strickland, adding fuel to an ongoing debate about the state of Chimaev's first meeting with "Tarzan."

Strickland, 35, currently holds the middleweight title and carries a 31-7-0 professional record. Fighting out of Xtreme Couture, the American orthodox striker is one of the division's most relentless volume fighters, landing 6.04 significant strikes per minute with a 76-inch reach that allows him to control range and punish opponents consistently throughout a fight.

Costa, ranked 13th in the middleweight division at 35 years old, holds a 16-4-0 record and trains with Team Borracha out of Brazil. The hard-hitting Brazilian lands 6.26 significant strikes per minute at an impressive 58 percent accuracy, making him one of the sharper strikers in the 185-pound weight class. His comments went beyond simply predicting a Strickland victory — Costa directly dismissed narratives suggesting Chimaev was sick during their first encounter, calling those claims an effort to undermine what Strickland accomplished.

The fighter those claims surround, Chimaev, sits at number one in the middleweight rankings and number ten in the pound-for-pound standings with a 15-1-0 record. The 32-year-old representing the UAE and Allstars Training Center is a dominant grappler, averaging 5.29 takedowns per 15 minutes alongside 1.8 submission attempts in the same span, and connects at 60 percent striking accuracy.

Why it matters

• Chimaev is the top-ranked middleweight contender, making any rematch with champion Strickland a genuine title fight scenario
• Costa's dismissal of the illness narrative directly shapes how the first fight's result is perceived and what a rematch would mean
• Strickland's volume striking and Chimaev's elite wrestling represent a compelling stylistic contrast that divided opinion the first time around