Paulo Costa vs. Yoel Romero: Madness in a Hoss Bod

Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

UFC 241 is likely going to be 2019’s frontrunner for PPV of the year. Stipe Miocic outsmarted and outhustled Daniel Cormier to reclaim his heavyweight title with his 15th career victory by stoppage. Nate Diaz proved why he remains such an invaluable draw for the UFC with a victory over Anthony Pettis and a hilarious post-fight interview. Cory Sandhagen (one of this writer’s favorite prospects) overcame the stiff test in tenured top 5 bantamweight Raphael Assuncao. Up and down the card, nearly every fight felt meaningful and engaging with several unforgettable moments. 

Most unforgettable was the violent showcase put forth by two of the sport’s most terrifying athletic forces. I am of course talking about Yoel Romero and. Paulo Costa smashing each other into smithereens for fifteen minutes in one of the best fights of the year. The bout announced Paulo Costa as a monstrous up-and-comer at middleweight, and it reminded the masses why Yoel Romero is an inhuman force of nature. It was also very, very violent and muscular.

 Costa Shows Up

Costa is a pressure fighter at his core, but there are elements of his game that are quite vicious worth pointing out. Firstly, Costa is exceptional at making the cage smaller for his opponent and cutting off their exits. As an especially large middleweight (who frankly might have an easier time at light heavyweight), he maintains his stance while pressuring, sticks opponents at the end of a long jab, and keeps his resets short.  

Mindful of Romero’s blitzes off the fence, Costa maintains a fairly long range from his opponent. Costa makes sure he’s not giving Romero too much to work with in open space, following him tightly along the fence and stabbing his body with the jab to make Romero’s rushes more difficult.

While some holes remain in his defense, Paulo has shown some specific wrinkles in his boxing approach served him well against Romero. The following exchange showed the dangerous of seeking and being denied lead hand control to initiate an exchange, and Costa made Romero pay for it.

Romero paws his lead hand in an attempt to control Costa’s. He is unable to gain lead hand control before attempting an overhand left. Costa counters with an inside angle left hook, closing the door, hiding his chin behind his lead shoulder, before taking a small hop step backward. Even if Yoel wasn’t knocked down here, this was a sharp moment of pure counterpunching that kept Costa in range.

Costa clips Romero with an inside angle left hook when Romero fails to secure lead hand control.

Yoel being Yoel, he managed to get Costa back instantly with a hilarious entry.

Immediately after Costa knocked Romero down, the ‘Cuban Missile’ found his own mark. Shuffling along the fence to his left, Romero distracts Costa with a “hey, don’t look” point before slipping outside & countering Costa’s lead right cross with a southpaw 2-3, despite his stance being square along the cage. I’m still shocked this actually worked.

Strategically, I remain unconvinced that Romero’s approach on the outside was the correct approach to handle Paulo Costa. It appeared as though Romero was hoping Costa was going to dive in with power shots as in the clip above and then counter, but Costa refused to commit to extended exchanges like he did against Hall.

Making use of the Daniel Cormier’s patented ‘foot jab’ that Whittaker prioritized against Romero in their first bout, Costa keeps Romero along the fence. Again seeking lead hand control, Romero gets hit by Costa’s left hook, however he combines a left-arm parry with an outside slip to avoid Paulo’s right cross.

When an opponent commits to circling into Costa’s power side, they will inevitably run into some of Costa’s best weapons. Here, he shows off a left hand trap to a right hook a full beat behind, and a crushing right body kick, which might be his best weapon.

Paulo Costa’s work to the body is arguably the best element of his game. His cage cutting allows him to run opponents into hard shots to the body and his ability to go high-low with his combinations opens up a lot counterpunching options. His body kicks, in particular, are quite brutal. If he manages to pin an opponent along the fence, he pinches them between his left hook and his right body kick, often which play off one another in exchanges.

In prioritizing defense to the head, Romero left his body open to be hit and Costa began layering in body punches into his combinations.

Romero’s Offensive & Defensive Breadth

Yoel Romero has flirted with various types of defensive guards and tactics throughout his UFC career, and against Costa, he showed off some similar traits that he unveiled against Whittaker in their rematch. In particular, Romero opted to catch a lot of Costa’s combination punching on his active high guard off the backfoot.

Costa paws a jab before taking a slight outside angle on Romero. His committed combination is a lead uppercut-to-overhand right a half beat apart, before closing the door with a left hook a full beat behind. Romero pulls off the uppercut, shifting his weight onto his back leg, and slips the overhand. Simultaneously, Romero outstretches his lead hand and stiff-arms his opponent, catching Costa’s left hook on his shoulder. As Romero is shuffling along the cage, he ducks under Costa’s thunderous right hook.

Yoel’s shoulder guard also received a brief moment of success.

Costa attempts some dirty boxing against Romero, throwing powerful hooks on the inside. Romero is able to deflect the right hook to the body off his forearm before framing with the same arm, taking small defensive pivots off his lead leg, and throwing an elbow to Costa’s head.

When Romero managed to get control of Costa’s lead hand, it paid off almost immediately.

Lead hand parry to left cross with an outside slip. Pretty stuff.

Considering how much of Romero’s boxing offense was delivered with a completely flat stance along the cage, some of the work Yoel did in the pocket was quite lovely. He walked the line between the pocket and the clinch quite well, occasionally punching into a collar tie and hammer Paulo with uppercuts.

Romero paws at Costa’s lead hand with his right, before tossing a throwaway left hand to get Costa biting. Costa slips outside of the punch, intending to counter with a left hook. Romero raises his right hand to his temple, taking a small step with his left foot, redistributing the weight to his right leg before torqueing his weight into a left hand that clips Costa.

Costa feints a jab and steps in with his patented lead uppercut-overhand right combination. Romero slips outside of the uppercut, and crashes into the clinch with a left underhook. As Yoel turns his opponent onto the fence, he slides his left arm up Costa’s shoulder, turning it into a single collar tie before popping an uppercut.

Similar to his performance against Luke Rockhold, Romero’s blitzes were violent and managed to force Costa back in a straight line. 

Yoel Romero is perhaps the only fighter on the roster with the balls to enter a blitz with a flying knee against Paulo Costa, but it worked here. This quick sequence showed that Costa is susceptible when he’s pushed on the backfoot, and he lacks his opponent’s layered defensive poise, instead just relying on a static forearm guard.

Amidst his stance switching, Romero fires off a few jabs from orthodox before switching to southpaw. The jabs from Yoel draw Costa’s forearm guard up, and Romero’s rear hand uppercut cuts right between it.

Switch-Hitting Jabs

To mitigate some of Costa’s relentless offense, Romero began switch-hitting and jabbing from both stances. Most of Romero’s success in the second half of the fight came from this new commitment to switch-hitting and building combinations behind jabs out of both stances.

As Costa hunches forward with his weight on his lead leg, Romero easily glides from southpaw to orthodox and back, jabbing Costa’s head back.

As a natural southpaw, the pop behind Romero’s orthodox jab is immense.

What impressed me most about Romero’s switch-hitting jab work was how effortless he made it look, pawing and feinting behind both stances. Costa looked befuddled fighting against a jab from both stances, and he had a difficult time seeing the punches coming behind it. Similar to Masvidal/Till, when a fighter’s vision is occupied with the jab, they have a difficult time seeing the feet of their opponent move in relation to them.

Against a constant stance switcher, Costa had a difficult time finding his positioning against Romero. Yoel would subtly be taking better angles in the pocket against Paulo without Paulo even noticing what was happening.

In the southpaw stance, Romero tosses a right jab at Costa, who attempts to lean off it. Yoel then resets, again in southpaw, flicking out the same jab to bait Costa’s response. In a sequence of two steps, Romero then paws out his left and takes a sneaky angle inside of Costa’s lead foot, landing an orthodox jab and reangling with his backfoot to conclude the exchange.

Again, in open-stance, the two fight for lead hand control. With his forearm guard up, Romero steps forward with his left leg, shifting to orthodox. He slips outside of Costa’s jab and lands a simultaneous jab of his own. After the jab, he throws a cross, which Paulo is able to slip inside of, but Romero transitions the punch into a collar tie again. As Costa attempts to turn away, Yoel switches arms with the collar tie and hammers Costa with an uppercut from his right hand. A darting jab lever concludes the exchange.

Building combinations behind the jab is one of the most fundamental traits in boxing, and the principle remains the same in MMA. If you’re able to frustrate an opponent behind multiple jabs, then the opportunities for extended exchanges are endless.

Romero also began hooking off the jab and jabbing off the hook, since Costa was having such a difficult time determining which defensive action to employ against the switch-hitting opponent.

In one of my favorite combinations in the fight, Yoel leads with an orthodox 1-4, shifting to southpaw as he steps with the uppercut, and levering into a southpaw jab with his right arm. As Costa retreats, Romero takes another step forward, shifting back into orthodox, to throw a triple jab.

Eventually, Costa got tired of being jabbed in the face and began making an effort to counter with the left hook, both to the head and to the body.

Not included in the gif is Romero’s tongue taunt.

Middleweight is Brutal 

There were too many awesome, bizarre moments in this fight for me to try to capture them all, but the point is, I walked away tremendously impressed with both men. Paulo Costa is a serious contender, and going strike-for-strike with the ‘Cuban Missile’ for 15 minutes is no small accomplishment, irrespective of scoring. Yoel Romero is 42-years-old, and he remains one of the most dimensional threats in the entire UFC. Every single fight, the man shows off a new notch in his game and every outing ends up more chaotic than the last. To conclude, this is the second best fight of 2019 thus far, only behind Poirier/Holloway II.

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