Costa's limitations are frustrating

[The Legendary Scarface]

He has some great attributes like power, size and he's pretty explosive for his size. He also does some good things like jab and utilize some kicks.

However, the man has absolutely zero counter striking or boxing in the pocket.
As soon as you throw a 2 or 3 punch combination, he just backs up and puts his hands up and essentially waits so he can march forward again.

 

[humdizzle]

i thought he looked better than previous fights. he fought through the leg kicks and had good head movement.

 

[AdamWarlock]

needs to work on his boxing

those single jabs didn't do shit

 

[Young Calf Kick]

No they’re not, I love watching him lose.

 

[Kenny95]

needs to keep his hands up around his face first of aall

 

[Roids]

He used to bang in the pocket though. Look at his earlier fighters. Now he is scared to engage and trade. Its a mental issue.

 

[CatchtheseHands]

He looked good tonight but he needs to learn how to throw combinations and set up power shots.

 

[Eternalwarriorking]

Yeah, definitely. Has a few interesting attributes, but him stumbling back awkwardly when someone blitzes into the pocket like rob simply will not cut it at that level

 

[aogiri]

Seriously. When they exchanged he would throw one hook then put his hands up to block while Whittaker was throwing multiple. It was too predictable.

Needed to follow it up. Hopefully he is more active this year

 

[SamuraiBro]

For a guy who has been out for 18 months I think he looked pretty good and almost finished Rob.

 

[Tapatio]

Needs to learn how to check kicks.

 

[The Siege]

He has some great attributes like power, size and he's pretty explosive for his size. He also does some good things like jab and utilize some kicks.

However, the man has absolutely zero counter striking or boxing in the pocket.
As soon as you throw a 2 or 3 punch combination, he just backs up and puts his hands up and essentially waits so he can march forward again.

Unfortunately, its probably too late in the game to ingrain counter-striking or combination striking. I am sure he can train it and consciously implement it when he is fresh at the start of the fight, but once he gets hit a few times, he will default to what has been ingrained in him throughout the decades.

I think he could have caught Rob a few times in space as he lunged in, similar to Izzy in Rob v Izzy 1, but again, thats just not part of Costa's skillset.

 

[Stick upkid]

His jab landed pretty well, but looked like he’d drop his hand while bringing it back and rob eventually timed his right over the top of it, had a couple good rips to the body and his kicks looked good early. Costa couldn’t react in time to robs punch combinations though, seemed like rob would land 2-3 flush shots and costa would either back up or throw a wide left hook that never seemed to land. Needs to tighten up the boxing and get back to throwing combinations and body punches. Could have been the inactivity but all in all he did better than I expected

 

[CanCrusher77]

He used to bang in the pocket though. Look at his earlier fighters. Now he is scared to engage and trade. Its a mental issue.

He stayed in the fire with Yoel. Izzy and inactivity has been his downfall.

 

[Kindjal]

Costa looks great ... usually for 30 seconds per round . Hope to see him fight again in 2025