Randy Costa has made a ton of changes following his TKO loss to Tony Kelley at UFC 269 last December.
After Costa lost the fight, he knew he had to switch camps to get more personalized training which is what he did. He also says he cut a lot of toxic people out of his life and after nearly 10 months off, Costa is finally set to return with a new confidence.
“If you asked me this in December, my answer would’ve been absolutely not, I wanted to fight and wanted to get a fight in March. I’ve been in camp since January 1st because I thought I (was going to get something),” Costa said on Just Scrap Radio on BJPENN.com. “I’m coming off two losses, I thought my opportunity would’ve been short notice and March was the timeframe I was thinking would make sense. Now that we are coming to October, my answer is different.
“I’m very happy with the layoff, it allowed me to not only develop more skill but I really needed that loss to sting, I needed that to marinate and really suck,” Costa continued. “I got my ass kicked. It sucked but it’s nice that I had all this time to be pissed off at the world and have this shitty taste in my mouth and getting so close to getting it out of my mouth.”
When Costa makes the walk to the Octagon on Saturday at UFC Vegas 61, he will be facing Guido Cannetti. It’s a fight that Costa thought would’ve happened when he first got into the UFC, but he’s very excited for the matchup.
“I thought we were going to fight before, I’ve asked to fight him before. He’s good man, he’s in the UFC, he can fight, he’s tough,” Costa said. “But, I’m going to knock him out, that’s what’s going to happen and that is all there is to it. He’s good at what he does, southpaw, big punches, kicks, a tough kid. I would describe him as a technical street fighter. He’s dangerous.”
Entering this fight, Randy Costa says the sole focus has been on himself instead of worrying about his opponent. The 28-year-old knows if he is on his A-game he can beat anyone and after time off to sulk in his last loss and work on his game he has a ton of confidence that he will get a KO over Guido Cannetti.
“This fight is me vs. me. It doesn’t matter what he’s doing, if I don’t go in there and act like a f*****g idiot I’ll win the fight… I think I’m going to catch him, I need to make a statement, I need to do something good,” Costa said. “The last performance was trash, I have two fights left on my contract. I won’t say it’s a must-win, because nothing is a must but I need to put a statement down to show I belong.”
If Costa does get his hand raised by KO, he says he hopes to get one more fight this year. However, he isn’t focused on that as he says he’s only worried about Saturday night.
“I would like to get another one in this year but I’m not thinking that far,” Costa concluded. “This is the first time I’ve played that question in my head because I don’t give f**k about that stuff. All I care about is winning on October 1 and putting my shin through Guido’s head.”
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This article appeared first on BJPENN.COM
