Yesterday, the highly anticipated middleweight fight between former title challenger Yoel Romero and Paulo Costa ended exactly the way fans had hoped. It was an all-out war which the Brazilian knicked narrowly.
All the three judges scored the fight 29-28 in favour of the Brazilian. He later called out the winner of Robert Whittaker and Israel Adesanya, who are scheduled to fight at UFC 243 in Melbourne.
Costa gave his thoughts on the UFC 243 match-up at the post-fight press conference where he said that he expects Robert Whittaker to defeat Israel Adesanya, but he also hopes that Adesanya ends up in victory.
“I think Whittaker will smash Adesanya. But if Adesanya wins, I will be happy to slap his face,” he said. “It’s personal against Adesanya.”
“He’s talked sh-t a lot, and he’s not proven (himself) yet. He needs to prove (himself),” he continued. “If Adesanya takes this belt, I will kill him.”
Adesanya had earlier said to him that he hopes to beat Costa before USADA does, implying that Costa was using performance-enhancing drugs.