Paulo Costa details his toughest UFC fight to date, and it's not Israel Adesanya (Exclusive)

Paulo Costa names his toughest opponent [Photo credit: TheMacLife on YouTube]

Paulo Costa revealed who gave him the toughest fight of his career so far, and it's not Israel Adesanya.

During an exclusive interview with Andrew Whitelaw of Sportskeeda MMA, Costa was asked to name the opponent he had the hardest time against. Although Adesanya finished Costa in two rounds, the Brazilian revealed that, for him, Yoel Romero is the fighter that gave him the most difficult time in the octagon:

"Romero. Yeah. The toughest fight of my career [was] when he was in the UFC. I think he was – even [if] he was old – he's in his prime. He showed it in his next presentations, the next fights. He was not so high-difficulty competition, but when I fought him, I think he was in his prime, so I think he was the toughest fight of my time."

Watch our exclusive interview with Paulo Costa:

Costa fought Romero on the main card of UFC 241 back in August 2019. After three hard-fought rounds, Costa came away with a unanimous decision win over Romero, who was then the No.2-ranked UFC middleweight.

Unfortunately for Costa, his win over Romero was followed by back-to-back losses against Adesanya and Marvin Vettori. However, 'Borrachinha' will have the opportunity to get his career back on track as he faces Luke Rockhold in the co-main event of Saturday's UFC 278 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Paulo Costa reacts to Israel Adesanya's UFC 278 prediction

Israel Adesanya predicted that Luke Rockhold will pull off an upset against Paulo Costa at UFC 278. But with Rockhold coming back from a hiatus of over three years, Adesanya believes he'll need to mix things up early to throw Costa off his game.

In the same interview, Costa was asked to weigh in with his thoughts regarding Adesanya's apparent support for his opponent. However, the Brazilian claimed that he doesn't care about Adesanya's thoughts, and that he no longer pays attention to what his former rival says about him.

"I don't care," Costa told Sportskeeda MMA. "You know, I don't know. I don't [pay] attention on him. What he's saying, what he thinks, I don't care."

Check out the tweet below:

Paulo Costa believes his fight with Luke Rockhold will not go the distance at #UFC278 👊

#UFC #MMA | @BorrachinhaMMA @ufc https://t.co/LDUN9twMfT

Nonetheless, Costa made it clear that he's still coming for Adesanya's throne. A win over Rockhold could be the first step to getting his name back in the title picture.

For Indian readers:

Watch the LIVE coverage of UFC 278 - Usman vs Edwards on SONY TEN 2, SONY TEN 3 (Hindi) & SONY TEN 4 (Tamil & Telugu) channels on 21st August 2022 from 7:30 am IST