Jason da Silva-USA TODAY Sports
Middleweight contender Paulo Costa is not that fazed about the whole coronavirus pandemic.
UFC middleweight contender Paulo Costa is not too worried about the coronavirus global pandemic just yet.
After attending March 15’s rallies in favor of Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro, which gathered hundreds of people all over the country, Costa started sharing some more controversial opinions about the matter on social media.
“This is free support, president Jair Messias Bolsonaro. We’re all robots. I survived PT (Brazil’s biggest left-wing party, which was in power up until president Dilma Roussef was impeached in 2016). Corona, to me, is beer”
Both on Twitter and on Instagram, ‘Borrachinha’ has been dismissive about the issue, and was seen still giving martial arts lesson to kids. He also blamed Globo, Brazil’s biggest TV network, for not taking any precautions to inform people about the virus until now. According to him, Globo had an interest in because of February’s Carnaval TV coverage, one of the biggest events in Brazil.
After Globo posted an article which showed video of Paulo giving lessons to children, with his own nephew among them, the middleweight contender took to Twitter and called them “angry leftists.”
Sinto o cheiro de Canhotos raivosos nesta matéria. Deixo uma pergunta, o redator foi até a empresa , quiçá usando transporte público ou fez Home office?
— Paulo Costa ( Borrachinha ) (@BorrachinhaMMA) March 19, 2020
“We knew about the COVID-19 pandemic and its risks since December 2019,” Costa wrote. “Still, you encouraged Carnaval. It’s obvious, you make a lot of money from that event, even if it greatly spreads it. I trained my nephew with his parents’ authorization.”
“I smell angry leftists in this story. Let me ask you this. Did the writer go all the way to the company, maybe making use of public transportation, or did he do it from his home office?”
Later on, MMA Fighting’s Guilherme Cruz tried to dissuade Borrachinha, asking him to think of the elderly, such as his own mother and Paulo’s as well. However, Costa disagreed with Cruz, saying he was not telling people to disobey any orders from the government.
“Hey, Borrachinha, how are you? Let’s make good use of social media and instruct thousands of followers to listen to the health department’s orders and stay home? We’re young and healthy, but let’s help those who aren’t, like Denise, my mom, and maybe Maria Augusta (Paulo’s mother).” Cruz wrote.
“I never told anyone to disobey any orientations. If I did, show it. As for my mom, she’s not elderly and is healthy. If yours isn’t, keep her home and don’t go out yourself. I take good care of my family.”
Eu não disse pra ninguém descumprir a determinação. Se fiz , mostre. Quanto a minha mãe , ela não é idosa e é saudável. Se a sua não é, mantenha ela em casa e não saia pra rua vc tb. Da minha família eu cuido bem. Abs
— Paulo Costa ( Borrachinha ) (@BorrachinhaMMA) March 20, 2020
Still undefeated in his career, Costa (13-0) is the number one contender for Israel Adesanya’s middleweight title. He has five wins in the Octagon, with only one not coming by way of knockout. In his last outing, back in August 2019, the 28-year-old bested Yoel Romero via unanimous decision.
As of this writing, Brazil officially has 904 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with 11 confirmed deaths.