Fight Island is relatively small and the fighter hotel is even smaller, making an encounter between Adesanya and Costa inevitable.
Israel Adesanya vs. Paulo Costa is one of the most anticipated fights of 2020, and a big part of that is built around their dislike for each other. The trash talk during interviews and in promo videos has been wild and off the charts, with Costa promising to ‘erase’ the middleweight champ and Adesanya returning fire with PED accusations.
With all the apparent bad blood, you’d think the UFC would make sure to keep them apart leading up to UFC 253 on September 26 in Abu Dhabi. But the quarantine hotel on Fight Island is only so big, and apparently it wasn’t big enough to keep the two competitors apart.
Fortunately, they kept it professional. Nay, I’d say they were practically cordial with each other. I suppose that’s how it goes when you’re about to earn the biggest paychecks of your careers off all these here wolf tickets. Watch the interaction, care of Costa’s manager Wallid Ismail:
“Warriors only fight in the cage,” Wallid wrote. “They may have a personal problem, but they will solve everything in the octagon.”
If you can’t understand what Israel and Paulo are saying through their masks, Adesanya jokes about Costa looking skinny and small while “Borrachinha” agrees he’s gotten leaner for this bout. You could have fooled us. Every video we’ve seen of Paulo has him looking hulkier than ever. Seeing the two side by side it’s hard to reconcile the fact that they’re even in the same weight class.
Regardless of whether the hate is real or not, we’re pretty sure it’ll be an all out war when these top middleweights step into the cage on September 26th. Who you got emerging with the win and the belt, Maniacs?