Sean as a 2-1 favorite seems a bit wide for me. He is the less dangerous of the two and while he is typically durable, we watched him get slept by Alex Pereira. If this was a 5 round fight, then absolutely the 2-1 odds make sense. But with Paulo fighting recently, I think he can keep it close. This will be a fun striking match with a Philly Shell boxer vs a powerful kickboxer. If Paulo uses his athleticism and works in some non-traditional strikes, like he did with the spinning back kick against Whittaker, he may have success here. But I do think he will headhunt and probably get jabbed to death. This is likely a fun fight but a very typical Sean Strickland fight. Sean is the pick, but I will be avoiding bets here.

Sean Strickland

Sean Strickland is a blue collar striker with some of the most controversial emotional swings in this sport. While he may he unstable mentally and outside of the cage, he is very put together inside of it. Style wise he walks forward and throws a ton of punches. He isn't particularly powerful, even though he did drop Izzy, or particularly fast but he has volume at almost 6 significant strikes a minute and fantastic takedown defense at 77%. He is a durable guy with a meat and potatoes gameplan. He is coming off the very close the title loss to Dricus Du Plessis where he landed more strikes, but was taken down 6 times.

Paulo Costa

Paulo Costa is a massive human being with a ton of power, a ton of output and a surprising amount of cardio for his body. He has more cancelled fights than actual fights in the last 3 years with a ratio of 5-2 but he does seam healhy and ready to go with a somewhat quick turnaround. He is always a ton of fun to watch with his forward pressure, heavy fast punches and a relentless pace. On average he lands more than 6 signifigant strikes per minute which is double almost everyone else in the division. He also has very good takedown defense at 80%. He is coming off the loss to Robert Whittaker where he almost finished him late in the first round.