Maybe he was sipping on Paulo Costa's wine - Israel Adesanya on Robert Whittaker thinking he won UFC 271 rematch
In the aftermath of UFC 271, Israel Adesanya hilariously took a jibe at Robert Whittaker. Adesanya claimed that his most recent opponent was sipping wine, much like Paulo Costa.
At the pay-per-view, Adesanya successfully retained his UFC middleweight title by beating Whittaker via a unanimous decision. However, during the post-fight press conference, the former champion claimed that he might've done enough to win the title.
When his turn came, 'The Last Stylebender' addressed Whittaker's comments:
"I heard, he thought he won the fight or some s***. I don't know, what he and Vettori were sipping on, maybe it was [Paulo] Costa's wine but f****** hell, he did not win that fight. Yeah, same thing, he needs to go have a shower as well and reflect and realize that, that's not true."
Check out the UFC 271 post-fight press conference below:
Back at UFC 253, Adesanya defeated Paulo Costa to retain the UFC middleweight championship. Costa claimed he was suffering from leg cramps and was half-drunk during his fight with the champion. Later, the Brazilian took to his official YouTube channel to further explain what had happened to him before the fight in Abu Dhabi:
"To that fight against [Israel] Adesanya, I used only 10 or 20 percent of my capacity. We had to change our strategy in the changing room. 'Do not attack him. Let's just wait for the first two rounds,' we agreed on. It was a mistake. Today, we know it was a mistake. The right thing to do would have been not to fight."
Check out Paulo Costa's video, via his official YouTube channel below:
Israel Adesanya now has secured two big wins over former division champion Robert Whittaker
Before their latest meeting, Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker had crossed paths back in 2019 at UFC 243. On that occasion, Adesanya defeated 'The Reaper' via TKO to win the undisputed UFC middleweight title.
'The Last Stylebender' had defended his belt against Yoel Romero, Paulo Costa and Marvin Vettori before his rematch against Whittaker. At UFC 271, Adesanya took the fight to the judges' scorecards and got a unanimous decision win (48-47, 48-47, 49-46).
Israel Adesanya has hinted that he would like to return to the octagon in June and could fight Jared Cannonier in his next title defense. 'The Killa Gorilla' beat Derek Brunson at UFC 271.