Israel Adesanya was quite amused by Paulo Costa’s latest apology for his loss at UFC 253.
Costa (13-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC), who fell short in his bid to clinch Adesanya (20-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) middleweight title with a second-round TKO defeat in September, recently revealed in a YouTube video that he drank wine that night before stepping into the octagon to help him sleep.
The decision eventually backfired, Costa said, because he fought a ‘hangover’ and claimed he was struggling with alcohol and a lack of proper sleep. Adesanya found it rather comical, he told MMA Junkie on Monday.
“It’s just funny,” Adesanya told MMA Junkie. ‘There were certain things I had done before in some of my fights, where I had learned my mistakes, but I went in and did my job. Some people are not selected for the lifestyle. ”
In turn, Adesanya says he was a little surprised at why Costa would now make the statement, 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 has said he will “kill” Adesanya if they run it back and is not happy with how the champion has been rubbing the result in his face since the fierce battle.
Adesanya said the attitude would not be beneficial to Costa’s career. ‘The Eraser’ is currently being discussed to fight Robert Whittaker in the main event of UFC Fight Night on April 17, and a win will put him back in the conversation for another title shot.
However, if he wants a second fight to be different, Adesanya said Costa needs to correct himself mentally and physically.
“I will tell you one thing: the best thing to do in his position is to accept the fact that he has lost,” Adesanya said. He punched his ass. The fact that he keeps trying to make all these excuses is only going to make him worse in the long run. He makes excuses because his ego can not handle the fact that ‘The Skinny Clown’ is bad on his ass and then taps him twice.
“Just swallow your ego. You stabbed your ass. Go back to the drawing board and rate your entire game. You can not just rest on it, because if you do – that’s my advice – you will never get far in life or in this game. ”
Whether a chance lies in the future or not remains to be seen. For now, however, Adesanya is focused on something bigger than Costa.
“The Last Stylebender” will try to add the light heavyweight title to his resume along with the middleweight belt when he challenges Jan Blachowicz (27-8 MMA, 10-5 UFC) in the UFC 259 main event, which takes place on Saturday. at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and is broadcast on pay-per-view after pre-matches on ESPN and early pre-matches on ESPN +.