Alessandro Costa floored Stewart Nicoll with a left hook to the liver to win a performance bonus in April, and has agreed to step in on less than 10 days’ notice to fight Matt Schnell at UFC Vegas 118 on June 6. He will then fly to Washington, DC to corner his friend Diego Lopes at UFC White House on June 14, and hopes to keep the spirits up with another finish.
Lopes faces Steve Garcia on the historic card at the White House lawn on June 14, and Costa said that his recent knockout, as well as Alexa Grasso’s incredible performance over Maycee Barber a week before, serves as motivation for the entire group.
“Our team is getting back on its feet again,” Costa told MMA Fighting. “It all started with Alexa. She had that beautiful knockout — or submission, kind of both at the same time. I talked to her all week, she was texting me and encouraging me too. Her win really motivated me. I got very, very excited. And I could feel that energy, like everything could work out.”
Costa said that the team opted to have fighters on separate cards so they could focus entirely on each athlete individually, and it paid off with two bonuses. “It’s a way our team works really well,” he said, and “now it’s Diego’s turn.”
“Diego is on the same vibe, man,” Costa said. “He’s really fired up and happy. We’re not underestimating his opponent, we know he’s ranked for a reason. Diego is very pleased with the two results and for him it’s also a huge motivation. He’s excited too. I see him doing a great job. I told him, ‘You’re next. You have to do the same or better than us, you can’t do less. You’re the leader [of the team], you’ve got to do more.’ I think he took that not as pressure, but as extra motivation.”
Costa was in Oklahoma helping Diego Lopes in camp when the call came to replace Imanol Rodriguez against Schnell, and that’s an opponent he knows very well. They were matched up to fight in September 2024 but the Brazilian had to withdraw with an injury. Costa asked for this fight to be contested at 130 pounds because making the flyweight limit on short notice “would have been complicated.”
“Schnell is a very experienced guy,” Costa said. “He was on TUF as well and has been with the company for many years, but I think his game hasn’t really evolved. He’s the same fighter he was three or four fights ago. My confidence is much stronger now. I’m coming off a win against a tough opponent, and that’s key. Of course, I’m not underestimating him, I know how dangerous he is. A lot has changed for me over the last two years. I’ve gained a lot of experience through wins and losses, and I’ve learned a lot. The good thing is that I had already done a camp specifically for him before, so we just put the game plan back together.”
Costa is 3-3 under the UFC banner with all three wins coming by way of knockout — and all worthy of performance bonuses. He has yet to receive the six-figure bonus check for his latest victory as the pay only comes after the athlete is drug tested post-fight and the result comes back clean, so he jokes the UFC can already change it to $200,000 to add the a bonus for his upcoming UFC Vegas 118 win.
“A bonus changes any athlete’s life, especially now that it’s $100,000,” Costa said. “It’s still on my mind. Even though I won the last one, I’m even hungrier now.”
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