Michael Bisping gave former middleweight champion Sean Strickland an advantage against Paulo Costa at UFC 302.
Strickland (28-6 MMA, 15-6 UFC) and Costa (14-3 MMA, 6-3 UFC) fight in a five-round joint June 1 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. compete in the main event
While Bisping gives Costa a power advantage, he believes the extra two rounds will greatly benefit Strickland, who has won five rounds seven times in his career. Costa, on the other hand, only competed for 25 minutes once, losing a unanimous decision to Marvin Vettori in a light heavyweight bout.
“It’s a crazy fight, you know? Paulo Costa hits harder, I’ll tell you right now,” Bisping said on his YouTube channel. “I’ve been training with Sean Strickland. He has very good boxing, we know that. When he beat Israel Adesanya, he had the best performance of his career and almost finished in the first round. You saw it, right? He’ll go out there. He’ll fight dick to dick, nipple to nipple, but his style is behind the jab.
“Paulo Costa is going to come out quite a bit earlier. I think Paulo Costa will hit harder, but I think Sean has the advantage in cardio. This is a five-round (co-)main event. Remember: Sean Strickland has an economical style, so Paulo Costa swings with everything he has, doing spinning wheel kicks and lefts. High kicks are very fast and explosive, but they require a lot of energy.
Strickland will be looking to bounce back from losing his title to Dorikas du Plessis at UFC 297 in January. Costa is looking to bounce back from an entertaining back-and-forth decision loss to Robert Whittaker at UFC 298 in February.
For more information on the card, check out MMA Junkie’s UFC 302 event hub.
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