Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports
Antonio Carlos Junior shared some of his thoughts about Paulo Costas’s loss to Israel Adesanya at UFC 253.
Even an usually easy-going individual such as UFC middleweight Antonio Carlos Junior had some fierce opinions about Paulo Costa after his dominant TKO loss to Israel Adesanya at UFC 253.
Not only Junior felt sorry for ‘Borrachinha’ not being able to offer any kind of threat to the champion, Antonio also had some personal issues towards his fellow countryman while watching the fight. In an interview with Ag Fight, ‘Cara de Sapato’ pointed out how Paulo talked some trash to him after Carlos’ most recent loss, to Uriah Hall.
“He embarrassed himself, right?” Carlos Junior said. “I hope he can recover soon and that he is not hurt. The last time I lost, he talked a lot of trash. But unlike him, I hope he can get better, because we have a score to settle. He talked so much and didn’t do anything. He didn’t land a single shot on Adesanya and still asked for an immediate rematch. He should lower his head and realize he’s not above anyone else. He just got here and is trying to get ahead.”
“I want to know where he bought his black belt,” Antonio continued. “I don’t know if it was Wallid (Ismail, Costa’s manager) who gave it to him, it must have been. He’s no blackbelt and he still got dry humped at the end. He should’ve put vaseline on his ass, not his face.”
A teammate of Costa at the TUF Brazil 3 house, Antonio says he was one of the few men who actually stood up for him during the show. However, Carlos says he felt betrayed once he learned that Borrachinha spread rumors about Cara de Sapato behind his back.
“He wants to do something and then he disrespects you, that’s his thing,” Carlos Junior said. “In the house, I was the only one who defended him. People talked about him all the time and I would defend him, I’d say he was a nice guy. Then they started telling me he used to talk about me, too. That he tapped me, that kind of thing. He made everyone in the house his enemy. It’s what he does. Nobody likes him. He’s really a bad seed.”
“You’re with someone who defends you and you bad-mouth that person to the guys on the other team? That’s just bad character,” Antonio said. “He left while owing money to our boxing coach. There’s a lot of stuff about him going and lots of people speak ill of him. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. I wished I would’ve noticed it sooner.”
Currently on a two-fight losing skid, Antonio Carlos Junior (10-4-1 NC) dropped decisions to both Uriah Hall and Ian Heinisch last year. Before that, the 30-year-old was on a five-fight winning streak, with victories over names such as Marvin Vettori, Jack Marshman and Tim Boetsch, among others.