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Sports News of Thursday, 4 March 2021

Source: guardian.ng

Israel Adesanya brushes off Paulo Costa's hangover’ excuse

Israel Adesanya Israel Adesanya

Ahead of Saturday night’s UFC light-heavyweight showdown against Jan Blachowicz, middleweight champion Israel Adesanya has laughed off claims by his last opponent Paulo Costa that his loss to the Nigerian at UFC 253 on 27 September 2020 was as a result of drinking too much wine before the fight.
Costa suffered a second-round TKO defeat to Adesanya in Abu Dhabi but recently claimed in a video posted on his YouTube channel, that he drank a bottle of wine the night he fought the Last Stylebender in an attempt to get some sleep.

However, it seems it is 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. “He didn’t seem under the influence. I should make up excuses as well. Oh yeah, there were race cars driving that whole night. 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 unconcerned about Costa’s statement as the two had a bitter rivalry in the build-up to last September’s fight. Things fared no better after the fight when, in the octagon, Adesanya performed a humping motion over a beaten Costa, 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 the Brazilian.

“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.”
Adesanya squares off against Blachowicz on Saturday night in Las Vegas in a light-heavyweight title showdown. Should he beat the Polish fighter and claim the UFC light-heavyweight title, The Last Stylebender intends to defend his middleweight belt next but also has his sights set on 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 the American popularly known as ‘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.”