Paulo Costa mocks Israel Adesanya following his loss to Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259.
Israel Adesanya came up short in his UFC light heavyweight debut, losing to Jan Blachowicz in a failed bid to capture the light heavyweight title at UFC 259.
Top-three middleweight Paulo Costa wasted no time in calling Adesanya out on social media, joking that ‘The Last Stylebender’ must have been drunk when he stepped into the cage last night.
Adesanya were you drunk too?
— Paulo Costa ( Borrachinha ) (@BorrachinhaMMA) March 7, 2021
‘Borrachinha’ is referencing an interview he conducted earlier this week in which the Brazilian said he was drunk when he lost to Adesanya last year, claiming that he drank a full bottle of wine the night before the fight.
“I was kind of drunk [when] I fought, maybe, on hangover,” Costa said of his knockout loss to Adesanya. “I couldn’t sleep because of the [leg] cramps. Keep in mind that the fight happens at 9 a.m. [local time], we have to wake up at 5 to get ready, stretch, wrap the hands. The UFC told us to wake up at 5 in the morning to go to the arena to fight. I hadn’t slept until 2:30.”
“It was my mistake and I don’t blame anyone else, it was something I chose [to do], but, in order to try to sleep, because I had to sleep since I was awake for 24 hours, I had wine, too much wine, a bottle [of wine] to try to black out. I had a glass and didn’t work. Two glasses, it didn’t work. Half bottle, didn’t work. I had it all.”
Adesanya lost to Blachowicz via unanimous decision but the fight was by no means a blowout. The reigning UFC middleweight champion had success in the early rounds but Blachowicz used his wrestling to win the championship rounds and tip the scorecards in his favor.
Adesanya is taking the loss well and is open to a return to 205 pounds in the future.