Israel Adesanya is quite amused by Paulo Costa’s latest excuse for his loss at UFC 253.
Costa (13-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC), who fell short in his bid to capture Adesanya’s (20-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) middleweight title with a second round TKO defeat in September, recently revealed in a YouTube video of him drinking wine the night before stepping into the octagon to help him sleep.
That decision ultimately backfired, Costa said, as he went into battle with the “hangover”, claiming he struggled with both drinking and a lack of good sleep. Adesanya found that quite comical, he told MMA Junkie on Monday.
“That’s just funny,” Adesanya said to MMA Junkie. “There are certain things I’ve done for some of my fights in the past where I learned my mistakes, but I went in and got my job done. Some people are not suitable for that lifestyle. “
For his part, Adesanya says he was somewhat surprised as to why Costa would come out and make that statement now, after more than five months have passed since the fight.
Costa has been pushing hard for a rematch in the aftermath of UFC 253. The Brazilian said he would “kill” Adesanya if they ran it back and is not happy with how the champion has rubbed the result in his face since the heated fight.
Adesanya said that attitude will not be beneficial to Costa’s career. “The Eraser” is currently booked to fight Robert Whittaker in the main event of UFC Fight Night on April 17th, and a win would put him right back in the conversation for a new title.
However, if he wants a second fight to be different, Adesanya said Costa must correct herself both mentally and physically.
“I’ll tell you one thing: the best thing you can do in his position is accept that he lost,” Adesanya said. ‘He grilled his ass. The fact that he keeps trying to make up all of these excuses will only make him worse in the long run. He makes up excuses because his ego can’t deal with the fact that ‘The Skinny Clown’ banged his ass badly and then double-tapped him twice.
Just swallow your ego. You grilled your ass. Go back to the drawing board and reassess your entire game. You can’t just rely on that, because if you do – here’s my advice – you’ll never get very far in life or in this game. “
Whether a rematch is in the future or not remains to be seen. For now, Adesanya’s focus is on something bigger than Costa.
The Last Stylebender will try to add the light heavyweight title to his resume in addition to the middleweight belt when he challenges Jan Blachowicz (27-8 MMA, 10-5 UFC) in the main event of UFC 259, which takes place on Saturday. UFC Apex in Las Vegas and broadcast on pay-per-view after prelims on ESPN and early prelims on ESPN +.