Rewatched Yoel Romero vs Paulo Costa

[thelittleman]

Yoel is still the toughest fight in the division. Even though he is 1-3 in his last 4 (and should be 3-1), IF Izzy beats him that's a huge W. Would love to see the old man become champ tho

Yoel is an incredible fighter. He is a freak of nature. I was rooting for Costa, but I thought that it was a draw.

But I still can’t let this go...

 

[Negator402]

People love to always spout "Yoel won", any time he has 20 seconds of activity. The dont even account for the whole 4:40 of backpeddling and eating shots, lol.

Exactly.

 

[DatSamboKid]

yeol did nothing but stick his tongue out and eat shots. costa easily won

You haven’t rewatched the fight my man. Yoel hurt Costa on multiple occasions.

 

[ElLunico]

I just watched that fight and Costa clearly won rounds 1 and 2. Never understood the protest of that decision.

 

[The Schmoop]

Idk if it’s an over confidence in his finishing ability or what but Yoel seems to dick around way too much in fights. Zero sense of urgency in fights he’s clearly losing. Perhaps he feels he can land a fight ending shot whenever but especially in this fight, I thought it was strange, his lack of urgency with a wounded and gassed opponent

 

[TheToqueville]

What a great fight.

I'll keep this straight to the point.

After rewatching the fight I had Yoel Romero winning rounds 2 & 3.

I give Costa the first round. Solid pressure, nasty power combinations to the head and devastating body kicks. Costa dropped Yoel Romero early, but Yoel stunned him in return.
Paulo Costa wins the round due to pressure, volume and nasty intentions, but it was far from a beating.
Yoel Hurt Costa on a couple occasions. "Wild round" - Joe Rogan

Paulo Costa started the second round fast and with bad intentions.
A lot of offence, resuming his forward pressure and destructive power combinations.
Yoel Romero is a freak of nature for a 42 year old man, by far the greatest athlete we've witnessed in MMA. A lot of fighters would cower in front of a beast like Paulo Costa, but Yoel played the rope-a-dope against the cage. I'm under the impression this was his game plan. And it wasn't a stupid one, because half way through the second round is where Paulo Costa starts slowing the pace down and breathing heavy.
It's still a back and forth war, but the tide is changing. Very close round, Yoel finishes the round with a take down.

You gotta give it to Costa, he doesn't step back. He is visibility tired in the third round, but doesn't fold and keeps on trying to murder Yoel with every shot.
Round 3 is when Yoel Romero starts shining. His awkward approach to boxing is having success and Costa is clearly frustrated by it. Yoel lands some hard shots and Costa finishes the round with a bloodied face. Third round goes to Romero and I don't think anyone debates that.


CONCLUSION:

Yoel Romero arguably won that fight, I personally think he did.
Yes, he has missed weight on a couple occasions, yes he is on a losing streak, but if Costa is injured, the next in line is Yoel Romero, he deserves the title shot.
This fight reminded me how good Robert Whittaker is.
I believe Costa needs to adjust his approach to fighting in 5 round fights.

I'm out peace.

Yep let's ignore Yoels cheating completely...

 

[MakeSherdogGreatAgain]

I thought he won too, but I'm not a judge so my opinion means dick.

 

[rpn453]

I missed that one. But media scoring suggests it should have been a draw.

http://mmadecisions.com/decision/10340/Paulo-Costa-vs-Yoel-Romero

That makes the Romero-Adesanya fight more palatable to me.

 

[SyranIncel]

Round 2 was definitely Costa

Only dumb people give it to Romero

Sorry

 

[TRYHARD 2001]

This was a great fight and the first time I watched it I thought it was a pretty clear Romero win... it's key to rewatch these fights with an open mind, friends!

I simply did not believe in Costa before this fight. I remembered him struggling against Uriah (although even that wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was initially) and he had no other wins that mattered so the fact that he got Romero this early in his career was surprising in and of itself for me. I was sure Yoel would put him out and send him back to the undercard. As this fight went on I started to realize that I hadn't been watching Paulo's previous fights anywhere near close enough and that this guy is so much better than I gave him credit for being. I still gave it to Romero, but that was me watching through a biased lens. After watching it again (been on a Paulo binge this week), I gotta give him this one 29-28. The combination punching, power kicks, and TDD/scrambling were all there for him, not to mention the ludicrous upper body mass and strength. This was a close one, but I now give it to the Eraser.

With that being said, he now has to do that to the best striker 185 has seen since prime Anderson. Before the Paulo binge I would have said that he can't get it done but now that I've seen how far he's come and the improvements he's made in terms of ring generalship, fight IQ, and cardio (and make no mistake, he's gotten better with every fight he's had in the UFC)... I still don't see it happening! This fight will be very interesting for the first 2 rounds methinks and I do expect Costa to be able to cut off the cage and utilize that ridiculous forward pressure of his to land some of those nasty combos against the cage (he's gonna piece Izzy's body up HARD early), he's gonna land the power kicks to the body and legs, and I expect him to win the first 2 rounds, although he will fade later. The problems will come from the 3rd onward when Izzy's unbeatable cardio and creativity come into play and he starts to snipe hard on a tired Costa. It's entirely possible he stops him late just based off of sheer volume while Paulo's sucking wind through his asshole... but it's gonna be a much better fight than I initially suspected.