New England’s Randy Costa returned to the octagon in a big way at UFC Vegas 11.
The bantamweight, paired up with fellow prospect Journey Newson, earned a Performance of the Night bonus thanks to a head kick that really was the highlight of the night. For Costa, it was his second straight win in the promotion, after an extended layoff.
Given it was his first pandemic era fight, you’d think Costa might have been a little thrown by the empty arena. But given the 6-1 fighter’s relative newness in the sport, that didn’t factor in. “This couldn’t have been more comfortable. There’s no secret, I don’t have many fights. I’m not used to fighting and having all these fans and everything,” Costa said post-fight, speaking to media outlets including Cageside Press. “I’m used to going and training in the gym, not having many people in the gym, and being able to see everything.”
More important than the environment was the result, of course. “All you saw tonight was scratching the surface. I’m capable of much more,” promised Costa. “And I’m going to show that going forward.”
What’s to come, he continued, includes “a lot of exciting tricks, a lot of exciting things. What happened tonight was not an accident. I saw that happening, I set that up going through the fight. None of that was an accident.”
It wasn’t part of the game plan originally, however. Costa believed that a head kick was off the table, as Newson had been caught that way before. Turns out, he hadn’t learned his lesson.
When it comes to opponents, Costa is more concerned with style than specific names. It’s why he eagerly anticipated the Newson fight. “I want exciting fights. I’ve showed that I’m here, I’m going to put on exciting fights,” said Costa. “It’s such an insane time right now. This is the most exciting thing on TV. People don’t want to see people go out there and cuddle in the middle of the cage for 15 minutes, they want to see people go out there and fight.”
In his last outing, Randy suggested he was gunning for Fight of the Night. He adjusted that Saturday. “I don’t want Fight of the Night, because that means you have to get punched a lot. And dude, that sh*t hurts. So I don’t want that, I want Performance of the Night. Hopefully every single time.”
He got off to a good start in that regard at UFC Vegas 11, taking home exactly the bonus he was looking for.
Watch the full UFC Vegas 11 post-fight press conference with Randy Costa above.
