Video of Paulo Costa taking IVs ahead of fights has allegedly been used against him for purposes of blackmail.
UFC middleweight Paulo Costa apparently found him in a strange situation recently when a now ex-manager tried to extort him over a video of Costa taking an IV. Costa, who received suspensions from both USADA and CABMMA for illegal IV usage before his last two fights, says that a trainer (who he won’t name) was in his hotel room and attempted to blackmail him:
“He was already identified and removed from the team,” Costa told Ag. Fight (translated via MMA Fighting): This person tried to send it to several people. It’s a tragicomic situation. He hurt himself a lot because he was cut from the team. He was part of the team and betrayed not only my confidence, but every fighter’s (confidence), I believe.
“I don’t know if a trainer can have the confidence of a fighter or a gym owner now because if he does that to one fighter, he’ll do to another. This guy has to be banned from the sport.
“He tried to use that short moment to hurt me and extort me with that video,” he added. “He said, ‘If you don’t give me this amount of money…’ That completely broke the confidence and I obviously didn’t even try to negotiate because I knew what I was doing.”
The undefeated Costa, whose suspension ended in February, is scheduled to fight Yoel Romero at UFC 241. He has won all four of his UFC fights to date, and stopped all of his opponents with strikes before the final horn. UFC 241 goes down on August 17th in Anaheim, and will be headlined by a UFC heavyweight title rematch between Daniel Cormier and Stipe Miocic.