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FightIQ · Record · Paulo Costa

Paulo Costa

UFC 8-4Pro 16-4Ranked #6 · Light Heavyweighttale of the tape = factsmetrics = our read

FightIQ’s profile

Built from Paulo Costa’s own numbers — record, form, fighting style and standout rate. Not reported prose. Power striker

UFC recordUFC 8-4 first fight 2017-03-11 · last fight 2026-04-11
Pro record16-4
Current streak2 wins
Last 5 (UFC)W W L L W
DivisionMiddleweight
Age35
Height6' 1"
StanceOrthodox

6' 1" orthodox power striker campaigning at Middleweight. 8 UFC wins — 5 KO/TKO, 3 decision. Top 4% of Middleweights: lands 6.15 significant strikes a minute and connects with 59% of his significant strikes.

Every figure here is recomputed at build time from the official fight record and the striking and grappling numbers on this page — there is no stored snapshot to go out of date. If a number isn’t in the data, it isn’t in this profile.

Tale of the tape facts

The facts, plainly — vitals and record from public UFC statistics; nickname, nationality and camp from the public fighter register. A field we can't source stays “pending”; it never shows a fake value. Where a fighter was born and where they fight out of come from their Wikipedia entry; where we hold neither, the hometown shown is Sherdog’s. The social accounts are the ones linked from the fighter’s own official athlete page — we don’t match handles by name. The UFC record is counted from the official results themselves, and is dated by the first and last bout it counts.

NicknameThe Eraser
NationalityBrazil
Born inBelo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil Wikipedia
Fights out ofBelo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil Wikipedia
CampTeam Borracha
Height6' 1"
Reach72"
StanceOrthodox
Age35
Date of birthApr 21, 1991
Weight205 lbs.
Pro record16-4
UFC recordUFC 8-4 first fight 2017-03-11 · last fight 2026-04-11
Finish split8 UFC wins — 5 KO/TKO, 3 decision
Social

Rank history facts

Every week Paulo Costa has stood in the official UFC rankings, one row per table, 2 of them, each band running from the table that set it to the table that changed it.

Paulo Costa in the official UFC rankings, Feb 2013 to Oct 2026: one row per table, filled with the status each published table set20132014201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026Middleweight415 weeks on the tables#11–15 · from the table of 8 November 2017No table on record · Apr 2018 – May 2018#11–15 · from the table of 16 May 2018#6–10 · from the table of 26 June 2018No table on record · Aug 2018 – Aug 2018#6–10 · from the table of 29 August 2018No table on record · Oct 2018 – Oct 2018#6–10 · from the table of 31 October 2018#1–5 · from the table of 19 August 2019No table on record · Nov 2019 – Dec 2019#1–5 · from the table of 10 December 2019No table on record · Dec 2019 – Jan 2020#1–5 · from the table of 20 January 2020No table on record · Mar 2020 – May 2020#1–5 · from the table of 11 May 2020No table on record · Dec 2020 – Jan 2021#1–5 · from the table of 18 January 2021No table on record · Dec 2021 – Jan 2022#1–5 · from the table of 17 January 2022#6–10 · from the table of 13 June 2022#1–5 · from the table of 4 July 2022#6–10 · from the table of 1 August 2022No table on record · Dec 2022 – Jan 2023#6–10 · from the table of 17 January 2023#1–5 · from the table of 7 March 2023#6–10 · from the table of 20 June 2023#1–5 · from the table of 27 June 2023#6–10 · from the table of 4 July 2023#11–15 · from the table of 29 October 2024No table on record · Dec 2024 – Jan 2025#11–15 · from the table of 14 January 2025First rankedPeak #2Last rankedLight Heavyweight26 weeks on the tables#6–10 · from the table of 14 April 2026Ranked today
Champion#1–5#6–10#11–15Outside the tableNo table on record
Peak#2Middleweight · Aug 2019
Weeks as champion0never held the belt
Weeks at #1–5149on the published tables, title reigns aside
Current#6Light Heavyweight · Oct 2026

Official UFC.com official rankings, 2013–present · rankings of 6 October 2026

A published rank holds until the next table changes it, so a band runs from the table that set it to the table that ended it — that is how a ranking works, and it is why an unbroken reign is drawn unbroken. Nothing is interpolated: the band is the last published STATUS, never a rank in between, and the hatched stretches are weeks the archive holds no table for at all. The champion band sits above #1 because a belt is not a rank. The three pound-for-pound tables — the combined one to January 2020, then the Men's and Women's ones — share a row, because they are one standing under three names.

Career rates facts

Career averages over Paulo Costa’s UFC bouts, straight from public UFC statistics — the same eight numbers on his official record. These are the source’s figures, not our read: what we make of them is the card below.

Striking
Strikes landed / min6.15
Striking accuracy59%
Strikes absorbed / min5.96
Striking defence49%
Grappling
Takedowns / 15 min0.30
Takedown accuracy42%
Takedown defence77%
Sub attempts / 15 min0.00

FightIQ Metrics

Six 0–100 scores, each a percentile rank against the Middleweight field — not against the whole roster. Tap any i for what a score measures.

FightIQ's read — derived from the tape
Our read — derived, not official stats. Ranked within Middleweight.
Striking92
Defence27
Grappling / TD27
Cardio56
Chin71
Fight IQ55

Our calls on Paulo Costa’s fights

Every fight of Paulo Costa’s that we called in the live 2026 season — whichever corner we called it for. Posted before the fight, graded after it.

FightIQ has called 1 of Paulo Costa’s fights in 2026: 0 correct (0–1 — 0% right). Each call was posted before the fight and graded after it. The confidence % is the number we stood behind at the time — losses shown, toss-ups included.

DateOpponentWe called it forConfidenceResult
2026-04-11Azamat MurzakanovAzamat Murzakanov (against Costa)58.8%Missed
back-tested

Across our full back-tested history we called 3 of Paulo Costa’s fights, 2 correct. Back-tested, not part of the public timestamped record: these were computed after the fact, so they show the model working on old cards — they were never published ahead of those fights.

Strike zones

Strike zones

Paulo Costa

Where the strikes go — and where they land on him. Career UFC totals, straight off the tape.

HEAD45.2%ACC 44%BODY40.6%ACC 82%LEGS14.2%ACC 89%
FightIQ read Body puncher 40.6% of his landed strikes go to the body — +20.1 on the field average.
Share by zonevs field average
HEAD
45.2% acc 44%−18.3 vs field
BODY
40.6% acc 82%+20.1 vs field
LEGS
14.2% acc 89%−1.8 vs field
Where the offence happens
DISTANCE 88%CLINCH 5%GROUND 6%

Significant strikes only, as recorded by UFCStats, across the fighter's whole UFC career. Shares are raw counts — nothing here is modelled or smoothed. Accuracy is landed ÷ attempted and comes from the per-round tape, which covers slightly fewer fights than the totals do. “Field” is the average fighter in that weight class, or across every division where a class is too small to average.

12 UFC fights · 934 landed

Takedowns

Takedowns

Paulo Costa

The level change — how often it lands, how often it is stopped. Career UFC rates, straight off the tape.

0.30takedowns / 15 min
FightIQ read Rarely shoots 0.30 takedowns landed per 15 minutes — −1.98 on the field average.
Career ratesvs field average
TAKEDOWNS4
0.30 / 15m−1.98 vs field
ATTEMPTS5
0.71 / 15m−4.62 vs field
ACCURACY50
42%−5pp vs field
SUB ATT
0.00 / 15m−1.55 vs field

Rate bars run to the population’s 95th percentile (6.86 takedowns / 15m); a fighter above it pins the bar. Percentages are drawn on their own axis.

Career UFC takedown rates exactly as UFCStats publishes them: takedowns landed per 15 minutes, completion rate, submission attempts per 15 minutes, and the share of takedowns tried on them that they stuffed. Attempts per 15 is the one derived figure — landed ÷ completion rate — and it is omitted wherever either input is missing. UFCStats writes 0% where no attempt was recorded at all, so a percentage of exactly zero reads “n/a” here rather than as a measured rate. “Field” is the average fighter in that weight class, or across every division where a class is too small to average.

Ranked in Middleweight

Recent form

Pro record: 16-4. In the UFC: 8-4. Paulo Costa’s last 8 UFC bouts, most recent first — the result in the cage, not our pick.

Straight off the official UFC fight record. Card names are left off on purpose: the only event labels in our data are derived, and we’d rather print nothing than print one that’s wrong.

Post-fight bonuses

4 post-fight bonuses since the UFC’s bonus programme began in 2006 — 2 Fight of the Night, 2 Performance of the Night.

DateAwardOpponentEvent
2022-08-20FOTNFight of the NightLuke RockholdUFC 278: Usman vs. Edwards
2019-08-17FOTNFight of the NightYoel RomeroUFC 241: Cormier vs. Miocic 2
2018-07-07POTNPerformance of the NightUriah HallUFC 226: Miocic vs. Cormier
2017-03-11POTNPerformance of the NightGarreth McLellanUFC Fight Night: Belfort vs. Gastelum

The UFC's post-fight bonus programme began in 2006, so every total here is a career total since 2006. A fighter who fought only before then has no bonuses because the award did not exist yet. Fight of the Night is a shared award and is credited to both fighters. Performance, Knockout and Submission of the Night are individual awards, credited to the fighter the official record names.

Awards whose recipient the official list does not name are credited to nobody, so these counts are a floor: 245 of 1,339 Performance of the Night and 1 of 180 Submission of the Night awards are unassigned as of 11 October 2026.

Full UFC career — 12 bouts every fight on the official record, newest first
DateOpponentMethodRdEvent
2026-04-11WAzamat MurzakanovKO/TKOR3UFC 327: Prochazka vs. Ulberg
2025-07-19WRoman KopylovDecision (unanimous)R3UFC 318: Holloway vs. Poirier 3
2024-06-01LSean StricklandDecision (split)R5UFC 302: Makhachev vs. Poirier
2024-02-17LRobert WhittakerDecision (unanimous)R3UFC 298: Volkanovski vs. Topuria
2022-08-20WLuke RockholdDecision (unanimous)R3UFC 278: Usman vs. Edwards
2021-10-23LMarvin VettoriDecision (unanimous)R5UFC Fight Night: Costa vs. Vettori
2020-09-26LIsrael AdesanyaKO/TKOR2UFC 253: Adesanya vs. Costa
2019-08-17WYoel RomeroDecision (unanimous)R3UFC 241: Cormier vs. Miocic 2
2018-07-07WUriah HallKO/TKOR2UFC 226: Miocic vs. Cormier
2017-11-04WJohny HendricksKO/TKOR2UFC 217: Bisping vs. St-Pierre
2017-06-03WOluwale BamgboseKO/TKOR2UFC 212: Aldo vs. Holloway
2017-03-11WGarreth McLellanKO/TKOR1UFC Fight Night: Belfort vs. Gastelum

Every date links to that bout’s own page. Card names come from the official event record; where the UFC ran two cards on one date, or that record has no row for it, the Event column is left empty rather than filled with a guess.

On the scale

Paulo Costa’s official weigh-in — the weight the commission read off the scale, and the limit it had to be under.

DateOpponentWeight / limitDivisionSource
2026-04-11Azamat Murzakanov205 / 206MADELight HeavyweightUFC.com

Weigh-in results cover the 31 UFC cards held in 2026 so far — 24 January 2026 to 12 September 2026. Earlier years are not on file yet, so a fighter with no row here is not a fighter who never missed weight.

On the map

The 10 cities Paulo Costa has fought a UFC bout in. Every pin was looked up by name in OpenStreetMap’s gazetteer and stored with the answer it gave; nothing here is estimated.

Anaheim, California, USA — 2 bouts, 2019–2024Las Vegas, Nevada, USA — 2 bouts, 2018–2021Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates — 1 bout, 2020Fortaleza, Ceara, Brazil — 1 bout, 2017Miami, Florida, USA — 1 bout, 2026New Orleans, Louisiana, USA — 1 bout, 2025New York City, New York, USA — 1 bout, 2017Newark, New Jersey, USA — 1 bout, 2024Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — 1 bout, 2017Salt Lake City, Utah, USA — 1 bout, 2022

Coastline: Natural Earth (public domain). Pins: © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL. Every host city and camp on one map.

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