Francis Ngannou is without a doubt one of the most feared fighters in the UFC. The reigning UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya revealed how Ngannou shut Costa up at a UFC event.
Israel Adesanya was fighting Yoel Romero in the main event of UFC 248 and Paulo Costa was talking smack from cage-side seats.
Adesanya shared an interesting story in his recent appearance on Submission Radio. The story was relayed to the middleweight champion by his friend and teammate Dan Hooker who was also present cageside.
“At my last fight – nobody wants to fuck with Francis – Paulo was acting up,” Adesanya said (h/t MMA Mania). “You know how he got kicked out? He was acting up, misbehaving, acting a fool. And at one point – Dan told me this, Dan Hooker told me this – it’s like, Paulo sacked it to Francis cause Francis told him to shut the fuck up, that his last fight wasn’t that great anyways, and he just shut up and didn’t even make eye contact.
“He was like, ‘hey, Paulo, shut up, your last fight wasn’t even that good anyway,’ and he just like… he just ignored him like he didn’t hear it,” Adesanya continued. “Everyone in the f**kin’ front row heard it and everyone saw him shit his pants. So, no one wants to fuck with Francis.”
Ngannou was talking about Paulo Costa’s last fight against Yoel Romero which took place at UFC 241 in august last year. Costa managed to defeat the Cuban star via a razor-thin decision.
Israel Adesanya vs Paulo Costa?
Israel Adesanya was supposed to defend his title against Paulo Costa at UFC 248. However, the Brazilian star had an arm surgery that delayed his Octagon return by eight months. UFC meanwhile had to improvise and offer Romero a title shot even if he was coming off of a two-fight losing skid.
However, Dana White has said that Adesanya’s next title defense will come against Paulo Costa. Last month, in an interview with MMAJunkie, Adesanya revealed how his fight against Costa would go.
“I’m knocking him out. That’s how I feel. It’s kill or be killed. Don’t get me wrong – like, I don’t think he’s going to catch me, and if he does, he’ll be quite surprised at my durability because a lot of people forget. They say, ‘Oh, he was scared of Romero’s power.’ It’s like, do you know how many (expletives) I’ve fought in this game – not just in MMA, but in kickboxing? Everyone has power, but there’s levels to this power (expletive).” Israel Adesanya said.
ALSO READ:
UFC News: Middleweight champion Israel Adesanya names his favourite adult performers!