After laughing off Paulo Costa’s recent explanation for why he lost at UFC 253, Israel Adesanya offered the Brazilian some straightforward advice.
In the main event of UFC 253, Israel Adesanya came away with a one-sided victory over Paulo Costa. After picking Costa apart with a variety of strikes, Adesanya brought the fight to a close with one minute remaining in the second round. The reigning middleweight champion left no doubt who was the superior fighter that night, or so it seemed.
According to Costa, he was only operating at 10-20% of his capabilities due in large part to an overconsumption of wine the previous night. These comments provided a good laugh for Adesanya, but his tone would then suddenly shift to that of an unsolicited life coach.
“That’s just funny,” Adesanya told MMA Junkie. “There’s certain things I’ve done before some of my fights in the past where I learnt my mistakes, but I went in and got my job done. Some people aren’t cut out for that lifestyle…
“I’ll tell you one thing: The best thing to do in his position is accept the fact he lost,” Adesanya said. “He got his ass whooped. The fact that he keeps trying to make all these excuses, it’s only going to do him worse in the long run. He’s making excuses because his ego can’t handle the fact that ‘The Skinny Clown’ whooped his ass badly then double-tapped him twice.
“Just swallow your ego. You got your ass whooped. Get back to the drawing board and reassess your whole game. You can’t just rest on that because if you do – this is my advice – you’ll never get far in life, or in this game.”
We will see if Paulo Costa is able to bounce back with a more sober performance on April 17 when he takes on former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker. As for Adesanya, he will have his hands full this Saturday when he vies for champ-champ status in challenging Jan Blachowicz for the light heavyweight championship at UFC 259.
Do you agree with Israel Adesanya’s advice to nemesis Paulo Costa?
