Paulo
Costa
will continue his efforts to right a listing ship in the
choppy waters of the
Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight division when he
welcomes
Luke
Rockhold back to the Octagon in the
UFC
278 co-main event on Saturday at Vivint Arena in Salt Lake
City. Rockhold has not fought in almost 1,200 days.
Costa enters the cage on the heels of back-to-back losses, his
viability as a top-flight contender very much in question. He last
appeared at UFC Fight Night 196, where he dropped a five-round
unanimous decision to
Marvin
Vettori in their Oct. 23 headliner. Rockhold, meanwhile, also
finds himself on a two-fight losing streak. He last competed on
July 6, 2019, when he succumbed to second-round punches from
Jan
Blachowicz at UFC 239.
Ahead of the forthcoming battle between Costa and Rockhold, a look
at some of the numbers that have accompanied them to this
point:
31: Years of age for Costa, who was born on April 21, 1991 in Belo
Horizonte, Brazil.
11: Costa victories by knockout or technical knockout, accounting
for 84% of his career total (13). His list of UFC victims:
Uriah Hall,
Johny
Hendricks,
Oluwale
Bamgbose and
Garreth
McLellan. Costa holds one other victory by submission (8%)—he
put away
Eduardo
Ramon with a first-round rear-naked choke at Jungle Fight 87 in
2016—and one more by decision (8%).
32: Seconds needed for Costa to dispatch
Ademilson
Borges Duarte with a head kick and follow-up punches at Upper
Fight MMA Championship 2 on June 15, 2013. More than nine years
later, it remains his fastest finish to date.
6: Organizations for which Costa has suited up as a mixed martial
artist. He has gone 5-2 in the UFC, 3-0 in
Jungle
Fight, 2-0 in Face to Face, 1-0 in BH Fight, 1-0 in Upper Fight
MMA Championship and 1-0 MMA Total Combat.
.854: Cumulative winning percentage between the two
opponents—Vettori and
Israel
Adesanya—who have beaten Costa. They boast a combined record of
41-6-1.
37: Years of age for Rockhold, who was born on Oct. 17, 1984 in
Santa Cruz, California.
8: Rockhold wins by submission, accounting for 50% of his career
total (16). His methods of choice: five rear-naked chokes, one
armbar, one guillotine choke and one inverted triangle kimura.
Rockhold owns six other wins by knockout or technical knockout
(37%) and two more by decision (13%).
175: Days spent by Rockhold as undisputed UFC middleweight
champion. He captured the title on Dec. 12, 2015 and relinquished
it on June 4, 2016, making it the fourth-shortest reign in the
history of the company’s 185-pound weight class behind
Georges St.
Pierre (33 days),
Dave Menne (105
days) and
Evan Tanner
(119 days).
10: First-round stoppages on the Rockhold resume, with two of them
having taken place in the UFC. He brought down
Costas
Philippou with a body kick in 2:31 at UFC Fight Night 35 in
January 2014 and took out
Tim Boetsch
with an inverted triangle kimura in 2:08 at UFC 172 in April
2014.
102: Combined victories between the five opponents—Blachowicz,
Yoel
Romero,
Michael
Bisping,
Vitor
Belfort and
Tony
Rubalcava—who have defeated Rockhold. They sport a cumulative
.723 winning percentage (102-39).