Costa addresses friendly run-in with Adesanya: ‘He changed a lot his personality’

Paulo Costa addresses his run-in with Israel Adesanya at the UFC fighter hotel earlier this week.

Paulo Costa and Israel Adesanya have been at each other’s throats for months, but both men were surprisingly cordial when they crossed paths at the UFC fighter hotel in Abu Dhabi earlier this week.

Adesanya caught Costa by surprise and says the reigning, undefeated UFC middleweight champion acted like a different person during their encounter at the weekend.

“I don’t know what happened because he changed a lot his personality, his persona,” Costa told the media ahead of his middleweight title showdown with Adesanya at UFC 253 (h/t MMA Fighting’s Alexander K. Lee). “Because the Adesanya that I saw on a video conference was a very disrespectful guy, he show his [middle fingers] all the time to me. But when I met him upstairs, he was very kind, very gentlemen. When I saw him I was waiting for a different kind of guy.

“For him, he came and he gave his hand to shake his hand and he asked me, ‘How are you feeling? Feeling good?’ ‘Okay, I’m good.’ He said, ‘You look very good.’ … So it’s okay. If he changed, okay.”

Costa’s manager, Wallid Ismail, says ‘warriors only fight in the cage’.

UFC 253: Adesanya vs. Costa takes place this Saturday at Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.