Israel Adesanya reveals why he doesn't expect to face Paulo Costa ever again
Israel Adesanya might be undefeated in his MMA career, but he's no stranger to being on the receiving end of defeats and devastating knockouts. Having suffered five defeats in his illustrious Kickboxing career, Israel Adesanya's final fight in the sport was a devastating knockout by the Brazilian Alex Pereira.
Speaking to MMAFighting, Israel Adesanya spoke about a Brazilian who he recently defeated - Paulo Costa. He doesn't expect the fight to ever happen again:
“I don’t think I ever see him again to be honest,” Adesanya told MMA Fighting. “I think this is going to be like Conor McGregor and Jose Aldo. He has to let it go.”
Reflecting on his final defeat to Alex Pereira in 2017, Israel Adesanya insisted that he has no desire to have a rematch and "get back" his win or get redemption for the knockout. He feels that it's in the past, and it provided him a valuable career lesson - something that he also provided to Paulo Costa:
“Even [if] I knock him out if he comes to the UFC, it’s never going to erase what happened,” Adesanya said. “It already happened. You just have to accept it and move on, which is the advice I give Paulo. You’re never going to get this one back. If by some crazy miracle or work ethic he does come up in the rankings again, he can’t unf*k himself, you know what I mean?"
Israel Adesanya then said that Paulo Costa paid the price:
“I’ve done it to him. I’ve embarrassed him. He just has to accept it and realize ‘my mouth wrote checks my a** couldn’t cash and Israel likes to collect.’ It happened and let it go. So that’s my advice to him cause that’s what I did.”
What would it take for Paulo Costa to earn a rematch against Israel Adesanya?
Given Israel Adesanya's rise to stardom and his current career trajectory, it would be hard for the UFC to book a Paulo Costa-Israel Adesanya rematch even if he works his way back up to the number one contender spot.
But if Paulo Costa does it emphatically as he did during his rise, then it would be hard to deny him a rematch against Israel Adesanya.