MMA Fighting Global Rankings,<\/a> Murzakanov looks to prove he\u2019s worthy of a title shot when he takes on Costa.<\/p>\nMurzakanov (16-0) has diced up the UFC\u2019s light heavyweight division, finishing five of his first six octagon opponents since earning a contract on Dana White\u2019s Contender Series in 2021. His most recent win saw him take out longtime contender Aleksandar Rakic in a little over three minutes and he now has 12 knockouts in 16 victories. He\u2019s sure to have his eye on Saturday\u2019s vacant title fight between Jiri Prochazka and Carlos Ulberg.<\/p>\n
Costa, a longtime contender at middleweight, moves up to light heavyweight for reasons that are mostly unclear, even to him. The social media maven is over five years removed from his lone UFC title shot against then-middleweight king Israel Adesanya and just 2-4 in his past six fights. However, Costa had a bounce-back performance against Roman Kopylov at UFC 318 and can vault himself back into relevance with an upset over Murzakanov.<\/p>\n
Check out the UFC 327 live blog for Azamat Murzakanov vs. Paulo Costa below.<\/p>\n
Referee Keith Peterson handling the co-main event.<\/p>\n
Murzakanov controlling center as Costa circles and looks for an angle. Sharp leg kick from Costa has Murzakanov briefly stumbling. First blood, of sorts. Murzakanov hasn\u2019t figured out Costa\u2019s movement yet. Costa lands a body kick. Murzakanov punches the body. Then another good body rip. Excellent body kicks from Costa. Glancing right hand by Murzakanov, who complains he got poked by Costa in the exchange. Replay shows Costa snuck a thumb in there. Oof.<\/p>\n
And we\u2019re back. Murzakanov has Costa biting in fakes, but hasn\u2019t been able to capitalize. Costa sticking with his game plan well. Murzakanov with a quick flurry, Costa motions for him to bring it on. Nice right by Costa, Murzakanov felt that one. Inside leg kick by Costa.<\/p>\n
Quick jab from Costa, and that might have really hurt Murzakanov who kind of stumbles to the mat. Might have been a slip or just off-balance, but could also be scored a knockdown. Costa has controlled this round anyway.<\/p>\n
MMA Fighting scores the round 10-9, Costa.<\/p>\n
Murzakanov coming out more aggressive, his corner must know he lost the range battle in Round 1. Costa right back to kicking the leg. He\u2019s not letting Murzakanov cut him off. Murzakanov finally connects with one of his signature jabs. He goes back to the body with punches and Costa definitely doesn\u2019t like those. Looks like Costa might be a step slower with about half a fight to go.<\/p>\n
Costa keeps landing body kicks, Murzakanov needs to find a way to defend against those. Murzakanov scoring with the jab now, to the head and body. Overhand left pops Costa. Another Murzakanov connects and Costa is fading. Counter left by Murzakanov, he follows with another hard punch, Costa tries to grab him and Murzakanov just tosses him off.<\/p>\n
Murzakanov gets Costa down and he\u2019s going for a scarf hold! Haven\u2019t seen that finish a UFC fight in a while (ever?). Costa gets out of there, but he looks spent. Costa lands a hard knee as they grapple against the fence to end the round.<\/p>\n
MMA Fighting scores the round 10-9, Murzakanov. Overall, 19-19.<\/p>\n
Costa might not have much energy left, but he\u2019s not just going to let it whittle away. He lets his hands go to open the round and he wants a finish. Murzakanov weathers the storm. A Costa kick seems to have injured Murzakanov\u2019s left arm and Costa knows it. He throws a high kick that Murzakanov can\u2019t defend and Murzakanov is ROCKED. Down he goes and this one is over! Huge win for the one-time middleweight challenger. Now light heavyweight threat?<\/p>\n
Official result: Paulo Costa def. Azamat Murzakanov via TKO (strikes) (R3, 1:23)<\/p>\n
Costa: \u201cIt\u2019s an unbelievable feeling. Put some respect on my name!\u201d<\/p>\n
He shouts out President Donald Trump to a big ovation. Trump was very complimentary to Costa on the performance.<\/p>\n
He says he wanted to fight Murzakanov, because he wanted to fight the best in the world.<\/p>\n
Asked about possibly returning to 185, he says he can still make it anytime (\u201cwell, 12 weeks\u201d) but fighting at light heavyweight he can prove he has more skill. He\u2019s not sure yet which weight class he wants to compete in next.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m here to stay and bring fire in this cage!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is the UFC 327 live blog for Azamat Murzakanov vs. Paulo Costa, the light heavyweight co-main event…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,701,638,82,640,702],"class_list":{"0":"post-598377","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc","15":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}