Injured top contender says Uriah Hall is an "easier" fight than Israel Adesanya

UFC Middleweight Contender Paulo Costa was supposed to be the next in line for a shot at the Middleweight Championship - currently held by Israel Adesanya. The fight seemed confirmed when Adesanya called him out post-UFC 243, but an untimely injury is set to keep Costa out for the first half of the year atleast.

Adesanya doesn't want to wait so long to get back in the Octagon and requested UFC to book a title defense against Yoel Romero, despite the Cuban coming off a loss to Costa.

When the Brazilian Paulo Costa was interviewed by Combate (H/T Bloodyelbow), he was asked about Israel Adesanya and he didn't have anything good to say about him.

“Adesanya makes no difference to me, he’s easier than Uriah Hall. I have no career goals of fighting him, I just want to because he is a loudmouth. I want to beat him up just because of that, it’s personal. When it comes to sports merit, I think Romero would be harder than Adesanya. There is no comparison. If Romero wins, it will mean more to me professionally. I want to knock him out. If I beat Romero, then I’ll want to fight Adesanya, too.” Costa said.

It's a bit surprising that Costa said Adesanya would be easier than Uriah Hall, but in all likeliness, it's trash talk for him to get into Adesanya's head when they eventually meet. However, all of that is dependent on whether The Last Stylebender can get through Romero - the man who many consider as the most dangerous at 185 pounds.

However, there's no denying Costa's legitimacy following his performance against Yoel Romero. While he wasn't able to finish The Cuban, he took him to the limit and got a comfortable unanimous decision victory.

Many will hope that Adesanya gets through Romero so that they can see the highly-anticipated clash between the Kiwi Champion and Paulo Costa.