Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
Paulo Costa promises nothing but violence in a fight against newly-minted UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.
Israel Adesanya got the job done on Saturday by defeating Robert Whittaker to become the undisputed UFC middleweight champion. Right after the fight, he immediately set his sights on his potential first challenger, Paulo Costa.
“He’s my b-tch. I want to make him my b-tch,” said Adesanya during his post-fight media scrum.
From his end, Costa already made things personal between him and “The Last Stylebender.” And when they do fight, he promises nothing but violence.
“When I put my hands on his head, his body – he’s going to feel it a lot,” Costa said during the ESPN+ post-fight show (via MMA Fighting). “I fear he can die in the Octagon, for sure.
”He cannot handle it from me. When I close the distance, I can KO him.”
Like Adesanya, Costa also holds an undefeated record, with his most recent win against two-time title contender Yoel Romero. Along with the skills he can bring to the table, the Brazilian fighter sees no other deserving contender for the title apart from himself.
And if it were up to him, the fight will take place in his home country.
“Now we only have one fight to do. One fight to match up. It’s me against Israel,” he said. “I want this fight with all my soul. I will take his head off of this cage. You (can’t) believe how much I want this fight.
”I can come here to fight, but I’d like to bring this fight to Brazil,” Costa added. “We have a lot of fans in Brazil, a lot of support there. The people there love the sport, so I think it would be great in a big arena like this in Brazil. I think it would be very amazing.”
Costa currently has a win-loss slate of 13-0 (with 12 wins by stoppage).