It’s hard to keep Sean Strickland away from controversy. The middleweight fighter had recently trained his guns at Kelvin Gastelum and called him an easy paycheck. ‘Tarzan’ has now talked about dethroned champion Israel Adesanya and Brazilian Paulo Costa who was a contender for the middleweight championship once.

In a conversation with MMA Junkie, the 32-year-old talked about how he wanted to fight against Paulo Costa.

Sean Strickland came out of a two-fight slump when he defeated Nassourdine Imavov at UFC Fight Night 217. The 26-5 recoord holder looked focused on the future. He accepted that he liked the Imavov fight, as it was inconsequential.

He said he liked such fights but wanted a title-eliminator fight against ‘The Eraser’.

Sean Strickland Calls out Paulo Costa

In his talk with MMA Junkie, ‘Tarzan’ opened up on what he thought about his last fight and who he would like to fight next. Strickland said, “I know he’s in some contract negotiations. It was nice. The UFC pretty much said a no-consequence fight (against Imavov), just go out there and have fun. I’ve got to be honest, I love when it’s like that. I would’ve stepped in to fight Ryan Spann this weekend if they would’ve offered me it. It’s so much better when you can go out there and fight and you’re going to make f*cking money and it doesn’t matter.”

Read More: “Sean Literally Punched Me…” – Chris Curtis & Sean Strickland Reveal They Have Been in 2 Fist Fights

He further added, “Costa’s a funny motherf*cker,” Strickland said. “He’s kind of dumb, and that says a lot coming from this f*cking guy. But he’s a funny motherf*cker, but I’m going to put him on his knees and f*ck him like Izzy (Adesanya).”

Strickland had recently challenged Kelvin Gastelum

Sean Strickland had recently called out Kelvin Gastelum in a disguised challenge. ‘Tarzan’ said Gastelum would be easy prey for him. He looked particularly unhappy with his friend Chris Curtis being ousted from the UFC 285 fighting cards and took a shot at Raul Rosa Jr. too.

Who do you think will be a worthy opponent for Sean Strickland? Which fighter can get him closer to the championship contender fight? Sean Strickland is trying to find the answers to these questions. Fans will hope they see him in the cage soon. Who in your opinion should be a good match-up for Sean Strickland?

Watch This Story: Extremely Disappointed News hits first UFC card of 2023 as middleweight main event gets canceled Sean Strickland steps in.