Paulo Costa on possible Israel Adesanya fight consequences: 'I can kill him'
The rivalry between Israel Adesanya and Paulo Costa ratcheted up several levels on Saturday night.
In his crowning moment, Adesanya (18-0 UFC, 7-0 MMA) defeated Robert Whittaker to unify the UFC middleweight championship in the main event of UFC 243 at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, Australia.
Then, in the afterglow of his second-round knockout, Adesanya picked his next spot as he called out undefeated Brazilian top contender Costa in his post-fight interview. The two even exchanged gestures cageside before that.
“You know who’s next,” Adesanya said. “I have a heavy Ricky Martin wannabe next. ‘Borrachinha.’ This is my octagon. I’m going to smash him. I want to rearrange his face.”
Costa (13-0 MMA, 5-0 UFC) wasn’t able to respond to the taunting Adesanya in the cage, but he appeared on ESPN+’s postfight show and left no doubt how he believes the fight, should it be made, would go.
“He pointed at me, you know,” Costa said. “And I know he cannot handle it from me. He cannot handle it from me when I close the distance, and I can kill him.”
Costa, in fact, made several such morbid references over the course of his interview.
“I think I am the most dangerous guy in my division, the middleweight division,” Costa said. “And when I put my hands on his head, his body, he’s going to feel a lot. I feel he can die, for sure.”
Asked his opinion of Saturday night’s fight, Costa said Whittaker got off to a good start before things turned.
But Costa also referenced Adesanya’s razor-thin win over Kelvin Gastelum to take the interim crown at UFC 236. Costa believes that Gastelum laid out the blueprint to beat the undefeated “Last Style Bender,” and that if Gastelum, who has fluctuated between welterweight and middleweight in his career, had more power, he would have finished the fight.
“I think Robert Whittaker start the fight very well, close the distance, because everyone knows when you close the distance against Israel Adesanya, he (loses) his distance, his time,” Costa said. “He cannot fight with guys who pressure him. Everyone see, to watch the fight against Gastelum, and if Gastelum had my power, I think Gastelum could have knocked him out.”
That belief helps fuel Costa’s insistence that he’s the guy to hand Adesanya his first professional MMA defeat.
“Now, we have only one fight to do,” Costa said. “One fight to make up. It’s me against Israel. I want this fight with all my soul. I will take his head off of this cage. Man, you don’t know how much I want this fight.”