Paulo Costa has a lot more to say about middleweight champion Israel Adesanya, and as you may have guessed based on past remarks, none his latest comments are of the friendly variety.
Paulo Costa and Israel Adesanya have been engaged in trash talk for quite some time now, just a couple of the highlights being Adesanya’s constant referral to Costa as a “juice monkey” and Paulo Costa classifying Adesanya as a “pussy African.” Now, Costa is saying that Adesanya’s relative frailty makes him incapable of slinging leather with the likes of powerful men such as himself and Yoel Romero (Translation via BJPenn.com/Google Translate):
“What I really think, a lot of people may not agree, but I see a lot of holes, weaknesses in Adesanya. Mostly physical, he should be in the low, middle-to-middle category, Costa told Combate. “To fight me, Romero, he’s going to be hit hard. And, I don’t think he has the strength to absorb it. I respect everyone who thinks he is very good. I think he has quality but does not survive Romero.”
“I think Adesanya should not fight, should wait for me to do this fight, because Romero comes from defeat, not cool,” he explained. “On the other hand, there is no one in the division to fight him.”
Dana White was interested in booking a bout between Costa and Adesanya following Adesanya’s capture of the undisputed middleweight championship at UFC 243, only for Costa to go down with an injury before those talks could progress. But at that very event, Costa almost took matters in his own hands and began an unsanctioned fight following an obscene gesture from Adesanya:
“When he pointed the finger, it was a huge lack of respect. I wanted to go get satisfaction, charge him, hit him inside, give a lot of f****g, but there was no way,” he explained. “There were a lot of people, everyone in front of me before this happened, thought something like this would happen. I would have to jump pass through a lot of security, I had no way. I would like to go up there not only for being there … Anyone who shows the finger to me, I will have the same reaction, charge the person.”
Unfortunately, for Costa, he won’t be able to do any charging any time soon inside the UFC Octagon as he recovers from bicep surgery. Meanwhile, it appears Israel Adesanya will not be heeding Costa’s advice and waiting for him, but he, and UFC boss Dana White, have a bout with Yoel Romero in their sights.
What are your thoughts on these latest comments from Paulo Costa directed at Israel Adesanya?
