Alessandro Costa believes there’s a chance he can be a ranked fighter come next week.
Fighting Stephen Erceg this Saturday at UFC 295 in New York, Costa (13-3 MMA, 1-1 UFC) believes a win could get him on the UFC’s official flyweight rankings. Costa is coming off a TKO win over Jimmy Flick this past June, and he thinks if he could pair that with a good win over Erceg (10-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC), who’s ranked, he could enter the top 15.
“I think it can happen because he beat someone that’s ranked and is now at No. 14 (in the UFC’s official rankings),” Costa told MMA Junkie in Spanish. “I’m right there, and I’m confident that if I get a good win, which is what I’m searching for, the UFC could notice me, and maybe I get in the rankings.”
Costa thinks there are things he can exploit in Erceg’s game in order to not only get his hand raised, but also impress.
“He’s someone that’s long, so he’ll likely want to maintain the distance,” Costa said. “We’ve been working on cutting the distance and fighting him up close. But more than anything, I’ve been studying his holes, and he has many flaws. I’ve also been fixing my own errors from previous fights, so that’s how we’ve been preparing.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 295.
