UFC 302 live blog: Sean Strickland vs. Paulo Costa

This is the UFC 302 live blog for Sean Strickland vs. Paulo Costa, the five round co-main event middleweight matchup on Saturday in Newark, NJ.

At the start of 2023, Strickland was completely written off by nearly everyone in the MMA community, but what a difference one year can make. After two good wins, Strickland stepped in on short notice to face Israel Adesanya for the middleweight title, and “Tarzan” pulled off one of the great MMA upsets, beating Adesanya from pillar to post for 25 minutes to take the belt. Strickland then promptly dropped the title to Dricus du Plessis this past January, and now the former champion hopes to put himself next in line for another crack at the title with a win on Saturday.

A one-time middleweight title challenger, Costa’s career has been a strange one. After surging to an impressive 13-0 start to his career, “Borrachinha” is 1-3 in his past four, and has fought sparingly. Nonetheless, Costa is one of the most popular fighters at 185 pounds, meaning he gets a shot at a former champion, and a win on Saturday could put him back into title contention sooner than expected.

Check out the UFC 302 co-main event live blog below.