After submitting Shayilan Nuerdanbieke in his lone appearance of 2024, Costa opened last year with a first-round submission win over Andre Fili, taking full advantage of a tactical mistake and clamping onto a tight guillotine choke. Unanimous decision wins over Christian Rodriguez and Julian Erosa followed, the latter being spirited enough to earn the combatants a shared bonus, and then the Brazilian closed things out with a bang by blasting Morgan Charriere with a high kick 74 seconds into their matchup on the final event of 2025, felling him despite Charriere getting his guard up to lessen the impact of the blow.
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It always sounds like revisionist history when guys like me come around and say there were indicators this being a possibility after someone goes on a run of positive results, but in this case, it’s absolutely true. Costa lost his debut on short notice up a division against Thiago Moises, giving his compatriot a good fight for the better part of two rounds before ultimately getting tapped out. He earned a win in his return to the featherweight division, lost to Steve Garcia, who is currently on a seven-fight winning streak with six finishes, and then began the run detailed above. None of those victories were major upsets or out of the realm of possibility, and with Costa’s good size for the division and well-rounded skill set, he’s done well to turn up locked in on fight night and make the most of his opportunities.
The next test comes in the form of Dan Ige, a featherweight staple who has long been one of the biggest truth machines on the roster. You have to be somebody to get by the Xtreme Couture standout, and even then, he’s going to make you work hard in order to do so, which means Saturday should be a tremendous opportunity to get another read on where Costa stands in the 145-pound ranks.
The division is in the midst of a shift, as a number of tenured talents have either fallen back or moved on, replaced by a wave of new names looking to continue shaking things up. Beating Ige would likely put Costa in the Top 15 and raise his ceiling a little more, setting up another marquee assignment later in the year.
