Randy Costa sees positives from Adrian Yanez loss, thinks rematch is inevitable

Randy Costa doesn’t think it’s over with Adrian Yanez.

The UFC bantamweight is confident he’ll cross paths again with his former foe sometime in the future. Both Costa (6-2 MMA, 2-2 UFC) and Yanez (14-3 MMA, 3-0 UFC) recently fought over the summer on the main card of UFC on ESPN 27. In a back-and-forth battle, Costa suffered a second-round TKO loss to Yanez.

The defeat snapped a two-fight winning streak for Costa while extending Yanez’s unbeaten run to seven consecutive victories. Costa very much respects Yanez and feels a rematch is bound to happen.

“This who game for me is built around respect, I think Adrian and I – it’s inevitable that we’re going to fight again,” Costa told MMA Junkie Radio. “He’s on his path. I’m on my path. I hope for the best for him, but at some point, it’s going to be a cool rematch down the road.”

Costa and Yanez had a friendly rivalry leading up to their bantamweight clash, which made headlines in the MMA community. Yanez also expressed post-fight that he believes a rematch is very possible with Costa.

The 27-year-old thinks there were a lot of positives to take from the fight despite getting stopped.

“I would’ve loved to win obviously, but a lot of good things came out of it,” Costa said. “Obviously, the most important thing is winning, which it didn’t happen, but there were a lot of good things that came even from the loss.

“I think I showed a lot of good things and a few things that cost me the fight, but man I’m just lucky. I’m living the dream. I get another chance to go out there and continue to chase the dream on a pretty big platform, in a huge stage, in a big show at the end of the year. I have no complaints, life is good.”

Costa is set to return to action at UFC 269 on Dec. 11. He takes on Tony Kelley in the preliminary portion of the event.