Paulo Costa believes that his rivalry with Israel Adesanya tops that of Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen.
Costa and Adesanya haven’t shared the Octagon yet but there is bad blood brewing between the two. It got to a point where Costa had to be escorted from the crowd before Adesanya’s post-fight speech at UFC 248. Back in Oct. 2019, Adesanya called Costa an “overly inflated balloon animal” following his undisputed title win over Robert Whittaker.
Costa Thinks Feud WIth Izzy Tops Silva-Sonnen
Speaking to Ag Fight, Costa explained why he feels that not even the rivalry between Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen can top the animosity between himself and Adesanya (via Bloody Elbow).
“My fight with Adesanya will be one of the biggest ones in the past few years,” Costa said. “I can only speak for myself, but I’ll make this pay-per-view be worth every cent. We really don’t like each other. This is, for sure, the biggest rivalry in middleweight history. Much bigger than Anderson vs. Sonnen, because Sonnen talked trash, but Anderson didn’t. Anderson just let Sonnen talk. I can’t not fire back and that generates more animosity.”
The feud between Silva and Sonnen is forever in the history books. Sonnen was the first fighter to trash talk “The Spider,” who was unbeaten under the UFC banner at the time. Sonnen was close to defeating Silva via unanimous decision but he got caught in a triangle choke and forced to tap out in the final round. In the rematch, Silva earned the second-round TKO victory.
Costa is expected to be next in line for a shot at “The Last Stylebender’s” middleweight gold. “Borrachinha” would’ve received a title opportunity back in March but he was still recovering from surgery. UFC president Dana White has been adamant about not wanting Costa to rush the recovery process. “Borrachinha” insists he has been ready to fight for a while now.
