Paulo Costa returns at UFC 317 against Roman Kopylov

For Paulo Costa, he’s just looking to somewhat regain the form he had six years ago. Back in 2019, Costa defeated Yoel Romero to move to 13-0 and he was the number one contender at middleweight. Costa had a very lackluster title fight in 2020 against Israel Adesanya when he was stopped in the second round for his first professional loss.

Starting with that Adesanya fight in September 2020, Costa has only fought five times total going 1-4 in the UFC. His lone win came against Luke Rockhold back in 2022. His last two losses were decision losses to Robert Whittaker and Sean Strickland.

While this is a fight for Costa to try and regain form, this is an opportunity for Roman Kopylov to get the biggest win of his career. Kopylov came over to the UFC 8-0 and lost his first two fights. After winning four in a row, he was submitted by Anthony Hernandez last year.

Since that Hernandez loss, he’s bounced back well winning two straight to move him to 6-1 in his last seven. Kopylov is ranked 14th and he’s hoping he can knock on the door of the top ten with a win over Costa.