Michael Bisping gives former middleweight champion Sean Strickland the advantage against Paulo Costa at UFC 302.
Strickland (28-6 MMA, 15-6 UFC) and Costa (14-3 MMA, 6-3 UFC) meet in a five-round co-main event June 1 at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.
While Bisping gives Costa a power advantage, he thinks the extra two rounds will heavily benefit Strickland, who’s gone five rounds seven times in his career. Costa, on the other hand, has competed for 25 minutes only once, a unanimous decision loss to Marvin Vettori in a light heavyweight bout.
“That is a crazy fight, OK? Paulo Costa hits harder, I’m telling you right now, Bisping said on his YouTube channel. “I’ve trained with Sean Strickland. He’s got very good boxing, we know that. We saw that when he beat Israel Adesanya, the best performance of his career, almost finished him in the first round, right? He will go out there. He will fight ‘d*ck to d*ck, nipple to nipple, but his style is behind the jab.
“Paulo Costa is going to come forward a lot. I think Paulo Costa hits harder, but I think Sean has an advantage with the cardio. Let’s remember, this is a five-round (co)-main event. That is a significant advantage for Sean Strickland because he has an economic style. Paulo Costa swings with everything he has, spinning wheel kicks, left high kicks that are just so fast and explosive, but they require a lot of energy.”
Strickland will look to rebound from his title loss to Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 297 in January. Costa is coming off an entertaining, back-and-forth decision loss to Robert Whittaker at UFC 298 in February.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 302.
