Paulo Costa promises to come back stronger.
At UFC 253, the Brazilian came out on the losing end of his UFC Middleweight title fight against Israel Adesanya. However, the most surprising news about his encounter is that the reigning 185-pound champ dominated the previously undefeated challenger once the bell rang.
Many were shocked at how easy Adesanya beat Costa, with Dana White himself feeling that Costa’s performance was “very weird":
“I think he landed one jab in this fight,” White said at the UFC 253 post-fight news conference. “He didn’t try to clinch on the fence, didn’t try to put pressure, kept going back to the center of the octagon. It was very weird.”
Costa came into the pay-per-view with a ton of momentum as the 29-year-old had 11 TKO wins on his record and was one of the most dangerous strike heavy fighters in the division, so the lopsided defeat was indeed a major blow for the Brazilian.
Days later, Costa finally broke his silence and states that he’ll come back into the octagon stronger:
As of this writing, there’s no word on where Costa goes from here. The recent middleweight title challenger is still ranked in the top five thus he may end up fighting Jack Hermansson or Yoel Romero again. Robert Whittaker and Jared Cannonier are scheduled to meet at UFC 254.