At UFC 253 last September, UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya dominated Paulo Costa, knocking out “Borrachinha” in the second round in an entirely uncompetitive fight. That win set up Adesanya to challenge Jan Blachowicz for the light heavyweight title this weekend at UFC 259. But ahead of Adesanya’s first ‘champ-champ’ fight, the man he most recently defended his middleweight title against is discrediting the win that set up “The Last Stylebender” for this opportunity.

This past weekend, Costa posted a video on his YouTube channel where he blamed his loss to Adesanya on getting drunk the night before the fight because he was unable to sleep, saying that is why his performance was bad. It’s an excuse that Adesanya clearly doesn’t put much stock in.

“The only time he seemed drunk was when I cracked him and he did that wobbly walk,” Adesanya told ESPN yesterday. “He didn’t seem under the influence. I should make up excuses as well. Oh yeah, there were race cars driving that whole night at The W. I couldn’t sleep. So it was really hard for me to sleep that night because there were Nascars just going ‘RRRR’ the whole night so I couldn’t sleep either. So we were on an even playing field.”

It’s unsurprising that Adesanya is dismissive of Costa’s statement. The two had a bitter rivalry leading up to their bout with copious amounts of trash talk on both sides. Things fared no better after the bout when in the cage, Adesanya performed a humping motion over the turtled Costa, creating significant controversy and sparking even more heated words from Costa. But with Costa’s latest excuse for the loss, Adesanya did take the time to offer some words of advice to his fallen foe.

“I’ll tell you one thing, an advice I’ll give someone like Paulo in this situation: humble yourself,” Adesanya said. “Accept the fact that the skinny clown whooped your ass. Accept that and go back to the drawing board and reassess your whole game plan. Reassess your team as well. Reassess your whole team and see if they’re right for you rather than just making excuses. It’s his ego. His ego won’t let him accept the fact that I whooped that ass, twice. So just accept that and you’ll be a lot better off. But if you keep making excuses, it will never let him get further in his career.”

At the moment, it doesn’t seem like Costa is planning on doing that. Instead, Borrachinha is now set to fight former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker in April, and should he win, it can be expected he will begin angling for a rematch with Adesanya. Unfortunately for him, Adesanya has literal bigger fish to fry. Should Adesanya beat Jan Blachowicz to claim the UFC light heavyweight title this weekend, The Last Stylebender intends to defend his middleweight belt next but then he’s looking at an end of year showdown with his most bitter rival, Jon Jones.

Adesanya and Jones have been publicly posturing for a fight for years now with Adesanya saying it would happen in 2021. Jones is now expected to face the winner of the heavyweight title fight between Stipe Miocic and Francis Ngannou later this year and it sounds like after that, Adesanya is hoping to get a crack at “Bones.”

“Man, with this whole corona bulls***, and America’s not really doing so well like New Zealand, so unfortunately it might not be summer or July,” Adesanya said. “But it’s still December. December 2021, it can happen then. All I know is this fight needs a crowd. That fight needs a crowd. I can’t do it in an empty arena. That fight definitely needs a crowd.”

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TOP STORIES

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VIDEO STEW

What the Heck.

Embedded 2.

Jan Blachowicz career retrospective.

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LISTEN UP

The Bash. Discussing UFC 259, Ciryl Gane, and an interview with Brendan Loughnane.

Man and the MITH. Discussing Ciryl Gane and 2021 champion predictions.

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SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

Giving away his strategy.

Metagame.

Friendship.

Bisping and Rockhold have mended fences.

Jon is very not mad about it.

Paulo Costa.

Feels like this is Izzy taking a shot at Costa.

This is definitely beef.

USADA.

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FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Jim Miller (32-15) vs. Joe Solecki (10-2); UFC Fight Night, Apr. 10.

Scott Holtzman (14-4) vs. Mateusz Gamrot (17-1); UFC Fight Night, Apr. 10.

Luis Pena (8-3) vs. Alex Munoz (6-1); UFC Fight Night, Apr. 17.

Rory MacDonald (21-6-1) vs. David Michaud (18-6); PFL 2021 #2, Apr. 29.

Gabriel Benitez (22-8) vs. Jonathan Pearce (10-5); UFC Fight Night, May 1.

Jimmy Flick (16-5) vs. Francisco Figueiredo (12-3-1); UFC Fight Night, May 8.

Roxanne Modafferi (25-18) vs. Taila Santos (17-1); UFC Fight Night, May 8.

Edson Barboza (21-9) vs. Shane Burgos (13-2); UFC 262, May 15.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Thanks for reading and see y’all tomorrow.

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EXIT POLL

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