Middleweight title challenger Paulo Costa has ripped into his UFC 253 opponent, Israel Adesanya by claiming he is not a real champion. Costa spoke to Submission Radio ahead of his 185lb title bid on September 26 and had a pretty savage prediction for his fight against Adesanya, he said.
“I have just one question, Adesanya, why were you frozen when you faced [Yoel] Romero? You are not a real champion, man, you don’t deserve it. I will kill you.”
‘Borrachinha’ believes Adesanya is fragile and his chin won’t hold up when they square off.
“He knows he’s fragile,” Costa said. “He knows he cannot get two or three very hard hits on his face, on his body. He will be broken. He knows that already because he was knocked out two times. … Imagine what I can do with him, with his skinny, fragile body with 4 ounces on my hands.”
The UFC 253 fighters were interviewed together by ESPN and things got heated. Costa took confidence from the virtual meeting and believes Adesanya will freeze at UFC 253.
“As you saw, when I gave the opportunity to speak with him directly, he showed how unconfident he is,” the Brazilian contender said. “He tried to show every time [his trophies] he got. Like, every time he went, ‘Oh, look how good I am.’ He needed to prove to the people and to himself that he’s good.”
“If you really believe you’re very good, you don’t need to show this kind of stuff, but he froze. And this is what he did when he met a potential competitor, a real competitor like me, like he froze against Romero.
Costa went on to use Adesanya’s beef with Jon Jones as an example of how the New Zealander lacks confidence, he said.
“He called out Jon Jones to fight. And then when Jon Jones accepted his challenge, he said, ‘No, I’m not prepared yet, I need one or two years to get more weight, to get more muscle to fight Jon Jones.’ So, Adesanya, unfortunately he is this kind of guy who freezes when he faces a real competitor.” (Transcribed by MMA Fighting)
Do you think Paulo Costa has got in the head of Israel Adesanya?