He is very pretty. He took heavy shit from Romero and returned it for an entire fight. He is fast for a muscle guy. He has wild strikes. He is famous, and a huge presence in Brazil. He makes money in other places. He is an excellent martial artist, and sometimes but not always, he is a formidable fighter.
It is difficult to convince wealthy comfortable famous pretty boys to really fight, but it can be done. He's done it before, and it is possible he will do it again.
I wouldn't want to be the test case.
The test case is his next opponent.
That is when we will actually find out if beast-costa will ever be seen again.
The reason i like Strickland so much is that he almost always shows up beast-strickland. He takes shots and returns shots. The only way to turn him off is to knock him out.
With Costa: maybe you will need to turn him off, maybe you won't, because maybe he will never actually turn on.
That's my 2 cents.