Israel Adesanya reveals he took magic mushrooms in the lead-up to Paulo Costa fight

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Israel Adesanya says he took magic mushrooms ahead of Paulo Costa fight [Photo credit: @ufc on Twitter, @stylebender on IG]

Israel Adesanya admitted to taking magic mushrooms ahead of his title fight with Paulo Costa at UFC 253 in 2020.

Adesanya teased his story on Instagram by posting a snippet of his appearance on Hotboxin' With Mike Tyson. His post came with the caption:

"'Story storyyy?!…'Yarns with Mike and Bash bout my last trip with the fun guys (fungi) and much much more. Link in my bio, hoe!!"

The link Adesanya mentioned leads to the full episode of his conversation with the legendary heavyweight boxer. In it, the UFC middleweight champion opened up about his experience with psychedelics and how they helped him address some of his "childhood traumas."

At one point, Tyson asked Adesanya if he had ever tried taking psilocybin, more commonly known as magic mushrooms. That was when Adesanya confessed to taking mushrooms a few weeks before his title defense against Costa. 'The Last Stylebender' said:

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"The last time I had mushrooms, actually, was before the Costa fight. This was like maybe three weeks before the fight. I'll tell you the story. So we're quarantined, right? We're quarantined in the gym because we were in lockdown. So me and my team, we locked up in the gym and we were living in the gym for that whole camp. One day, it was a Sunday, we did our spider session – this was the hardest workout of the week, it simulates the fight. After that, me [my companions] decide, 'Let's go on a bike ride.' And then we just did some mushrooms and it was one of the best f***ing days ever."

Check out Israel Adesanya's appearance on Hotboxin' with Mike Tyson:

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Paulo Costa confessed to chugging a bottle of wine before fighting Israel Adesanya

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Paulo Costa received backlash after he tried to excuse his poor performance against Israel Adesanya by admitting he drank a whole bottle of wine the night before his fight.

In the aftermath of arguably his worst performance to date, Costa said on his YouTube channel that he resorted to drinking alcohol in an effort to fall asleep. In a previous interview with ESPN MMA, he explained his actions, saying:

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"My weight cut was very hard, but it's always hard. The problem is that in Abu Dhabi, the fight happens in the morning, not at night. So, you get one night more [of recovery]. And what happened is, after my weight cut, I had recovered very well. But then I trained so hard. I was so confident, that I trained hard. I trained more than is recommended after a weight cut. And I think this made a lot of problems in my body. I had a lot of cramps and I had a lot of problems trying to sleep."

Watch Paulo Costa's interview below:

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