Ahead of his UFC Vegas 22 fight with Kevin Holland, top middleweight Derek Brunson isn’t buying Paulo Costa’s excuses after getting beat down by middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.
After the smoke cleared at UFC 253, champion Adesanya successfully defended his throne at middleweight and he did so in spectacular fashion against the heavy-hitting Costa. Following the disaster of a performance, Costa admitted that he was under the influence of alcohol (wine) the night before.
After hearing of the excuse, this weekend’s headliner Derek Brunson wasn’t having any of it. In fact, he thought the Brazilian could have thought of a better excuse than that.
“Yeah, that was an all-time excuse, I don’t know what Costa was thinking on that,” Derek Brunson told SCMP MMA. “He could have made up something better than that.”
Since Brunson has faced Adesanya in the past, the credentialed wrestler wasn’t buying the excuses of the Brazilian, it’s a sport and sometimes you get out-struck and thought Costa was showing poor sportsmanship.
“But it’s like, you’re whining, stop it. Derek Brunson exclaimed. You have to go out there and fight and do well and get a title shot, you can’t lose a fight that wasn’t competitive and get a title shot.”
Certainly, with a huge fight ahead of him in “Big Mouth”, Brunson undoubtedly has a lot on the line. The middleweight staple thwarted Edmond Shahbazyan who many believed would be the next title contender and just use Brunson as a stepping stone. Then, after Holland went 5-0 in a calendar year in 2020, the No.7 ranked Brunson knows that in order to get that title shot, you can’t make excuses, you have to go out there and earn it, and that is what Brunson intends to do this Saturday.
Who do you think wins in the middleweight bout between Derek Brunson and Kevin Holland this weekend? Let us know below!
