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Derek Brunson is coming off one of the most impressive performances of his career, having secured a stoppage victory over highly-touted Middleweight prospect Edmen Shahbazyan.
Brunson faced Shahbazyan in August and became the first fighter to hand the latter a loss in professional MMA competition.
Brunson’s third-round TKO finish of Shahbazyan has considerably improved the former’s chances of eventually receiving a rematch against reigning UFC Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya.
Derek Brunson calls out Paulo Costa for a fight at UFC 256
Derek Brunson is presently ranked in the lower tier of the top 10 UFC Middleweights. He would surely require a win or two over fighters ranked in the top five of the division in order to receive a title shot.
Brunson possesses a significant amount of momentum, in light of his dominant performance against top prospect Edmen Shahbazyan.
On the contrary, Paulo Costa recently suffered the first loss of his MMA career. The talented Brazilian KO artist fell via TKO to Israel Adesanya in their UFC Middleweight title matchup.
Brunson has now taken to his official Twitter account and put forth a tweet calling out Costa for a fight at UFC’s December 12th event.
Brunson’s tweet calling out Paulo Costa for a fight read as follows:
“Has anyone seen or heard from @BorrachinhaMMA . Someone ask him if he’s available Dec 12 ! @AliAbdelaziz00 @Mickmaynard2 @danawhite”
One ought to note that the aforementioned December 12th event mentioned by Brunson is indeed the UFC 256 fight card that’ll reportedly feature not one, but two UFC Championship fights.
Reigning UFC Welterweight Champion Kamaru Usman will defend his belt against Gilbert Burns at UFC 256.
Additionally, UFC 256 will feature Amanda Nunes putting her Women’s Featherweight title on the line against Megan Anderson.
How does Derek Brunson match up against Paulo Costa?
Derek Brunson has often been lauded by the vast majority of MMA fans and experts for his excellent wrestling skills and vicious KO power.
Nevertheless, Brunson is also known to have a few major issues with the defense aspect of his striking.
Opponents such as Robert Whittaker, Ronaldo Souza, Israel Adesanya, and others have exploited Brunson’s tendency to overextend with his strikes.
Needless to say, the lapses in Brunson’s defensive striking, particularly against high-level opponents such as the ones mentioned above, have resulted in him getting knocked out on multiple occasions.
That, in turn, could be a huge problem against an aggressive knockout artist like Paulo Costa.
Fans can expect further details regarding the UFC’s plans for Derek Brunson to unravel in the days to come.
Do you think Derek Brunson can defeat Paulo Costa? Sound off in the comments.
