Israel Adesanya Tells Paulo Costa To ‘Swallow Your Ego’, Amid Claims He Was ‘Hungover’ At UFC 253

Ahead of his upcoming UFC 259 headliner this weekend, middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya has offered some career advice to most recent opposition, rival, Paulo Costa — amid claims from the Brazilian that he had drunk an entire bottle of wine the night prior to their UFC 253 matchup last September, resulting in a hangover.

Attempting to become just the fifth mixed martial artist in promotional history to hold two titles simultaneously this weekend, the City Kickboxing standout makes his light heavyweight debut as he challenges incumbent champion, Jan Blachowicz for undisputed spoils.

Dispatching Belo Horizonte power-puncher, Costa in the main event of UFC 253 on ‘Fight Island’ last September, with relative ease — Adesanya scored a second round knockout after chopping down the Brazilian’s lead leg and firing off a massive left high-kick before follow-up ground-strikes.

Detailing his woes prior to the matchup during a video on his official YouTube channel over the weekend, Costa claimed that he consumed an entire bottle of wine in the early hours of ghd morning ahead of his Abu Dhabi, UAE matchup with Adesanya, in a bid to score some sleep — but was left with the effects of a hangover as he made his Octagon walk.

“I was kind of drunk (when) I fought, maybe, on (sic) hangover,” Costa said. “I couldn’t sleep because of the (leg) cramps. Keep in mind that the fight happens at 9 a.m. (local time), we have to wake up at 5 (a.m.) to get ready, stretch, wrap the hands. The UFC told us to wake up at 5 in the morning to go to the arena to fight. I hadn’t slept until 2:30 (a.m).“

“It was my mistake and I don’t blame anyone else, it was something I chose (to do), but, in order to try to sleep, because I had to sleep since I was awake for twenty-four hours, I had wine, too much wine, a bottle (of wine) to try to black out. I had a glass and (it) didn’t work. Two glasses, it didn’t work. Half bottle didn’t work. I had it all.” (H/T MMA Fighting)

Reacting to Costa’s claims during a recent interview with MMA Junkie — Adesanya encouraged the soon to return contender to just accept the reality that he lost, and to put his ego surrounding the matchup to one side.

“That’s just funny,” Adesanya said. “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 explained. “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.“

If Costa remains attached to his ego, as Adesanya put it, that would only serve to hamper him in the future.

“Just swallow your ego,” Adesanya said. “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.“

Returning to action on April 17 in a UFC Fight Night headliner, Costa looks to rebound to the winner’s enclosure as he draws former division titleholder, common-foe, Robert Whittaker in a potential title-eliminator as the pair of strikers look to earn possible rematches against Adesanya.