"I will fight him again, but sober" - Paulo Costa finally reveals what led to his downfall against Israel Adesanya at UFC 253
![Paulo Costa (left) and Israel Adesanya (right) [Images Courtesy: @borrachinhamma and @stylebender via Instagram]](https://staticg.sportskeeda.com/editor/2021/08/e839d-16288332585961-800.jpg?w=500)
UFC middleweight Paulo Costa spoke about his fight against Israel Adesanya for the first time since his loss to the current middleweight king.
'The Eraser' spoke about the whole situation that led to his downfall at UFC 253. The chain of events took place the week of the fight in Abu Dhabi where Paulo Costa arrived, prior to his fight.
Paulo Costa has since admitted to have treated himself to a whole bottle of wine the night before the middleweight title fight with Adesanya. He pointed to it after the fight as a potential reason why he didn't perform up to expectation. Adesanya was dominant in the contest, picking at Costa from range using his kicks before finishing the fight in the second round with a well-timed left hook that felled the Brazilian.
According to Costa, the time of the fight affected his regime and his mindset the most. He explained how he had the urge to train a day after weighing in when his body was dehydrated. The dehydration and overtraining then led to cramps that eventually restricted the 30 year old middleweight contender from sleeping before the fight.
Talking to Brett Okamoto of ESPN MMA, Costa said:
"My weight cut was very hard, [but it's always] hard. The problem is, there in Abu Dhabi the fight happened in the morning, not at night so you get one night more. What happened is, after the weight cut, I [recovered] very well my weight, but I trained so hard, I was so confident. So confident that I trained so hard [after the weight cut] and I think this made a lot of problems on my body."
Costa continued:
"I [could've said] the fight will be cancelled but I decided to fight because I believed in myself more than [to] believe on him. I believe too much in myself that I thought I can beat him even after a bottle of wine, in my mind you know. But, he won."
Paulo Costa then exclaimed humorously that it'd be in his best interest to fight Adesanya sober whenever the opportunity for the rematch arises:
"..but he won, what [could I] say. He won, congratulations to him but I will fight him again, sober!"
Watch Paulo Costa's full interview with ESPN MMA's Brett Okamoto below:
Paulo Costa will fight Marvin Vettori on October 23
'The Eraser' will fight fellow strong contender Marvin Vettori and has vowed to finish the Italian early in the fight. The fight will signify the Brazilian's return to the octagon and a potential road back to the title.