Paulo Costa vs. Anthony “Rumble” Johnson next?
The recent middleweight title challenger hasn’t been a happy man since losing to Israel Adesanya at UFC 253, with the Brazilian demanding a rematch because of Adesanya’s crude post-fight celebration. Many have called out Costa’s reaction as the 29-year-old had done everything in his power to embarrass the champion leading up to the fight, with former UFC star Anthony Johnson especially critical of Costa’s antics (Transcript courtesy of BJPenn.com):
“I don’t understand all of a sudden either why Costa is getting so upset after he saw what ‘Stylebender’ did to him, you know?” Johnson said on Real Quick with Mike Swick. ”I was like, ‘Dude, you were the one talking so much and then he gets you at the end, and now you mad? Because he embarrassed you?’ C’mon, man, grow some balls. Man up to that. It is what it is. You can’t demand a rematch after a performance like that, either. That’s not smart. That’s not gonna sell for sure.”
Costa didn’t take kindly to Johnson’s words and fired back at the 36-year-old:
Johnson snapped back quickly with a hilarious response:
Johnson is currently in the midst of making a return to the octagon as a light heavyweight; however, there’s no confirmation on when he’ll fight again. Thus far, Costa has yet to respond to Johnson. The next few months should be very interesting for Costa as the middleweight hopes to rebound from his dominant loss to Adesanya, though there’s been no news on who he could potentially fight next.