Israel Adesanya Has A Message For Paulo Costa And Future Opponents
After trading blows in interviews and on social media for over a year, Israel Adesanya and Paulo Costa, finally got to settle their differences at UFC 253, where ‘The Last Stylebender’ finished the Brazilian in the second round to successfully defend his middleweight title.
Immediately after the fight, Adesanya celebrated by pretending to hump Costa, and then made an inappropriate gesture towards his head coach, Eric Albarracin. Many felt that it was wrong for him to act like that inside the Octagon, but the champion doesn’t care what anyone has to say.
“I Couldn’t Give A F***”
Speaking to MMA Fighting, Adesanya shared his thoughts on the critics of his post fight antics.
“I couldn’t give a f*** what they think to be honest.” Adesanya said. “I didn’t even think about it. I didn’t even plan it. It was just justified. Like you know when you’re on ‘Call of Duty’ and you smoke someone with a head shot and then you go over them and then press circle, down, up, down, up, kind of tea bag them. That’s kind of what I did.
“What it is, is homophobia. People are just mad ‘Why are you doing that?You’re not a man’ cause they feel inadequate. Questioning their own sexuality.”
Slipping Into Costa’s DMs
The Nigerian born Kiwi made it clear that Costa’s behaviour before their fight justified his actions, and also opened up on the private messages he sent ‘Borrachinha’ after their fight.
“Dude said so much s*** to me leading up to the fight, insulted me in so many different ways,” Adesanya said. “That was pretty much a second after the fight was over and you expect me to be gracious? Are you f***ing kidding me? I was gracious when I walked up to him and said ‘Are you going to shake my hand?’ and he shook my hand and I said good fight, thank you. Thank you for the game. I was gracious when I secretly DM’d him and checked ‘How’s your leg?’ I just wanted to check on him.
“I told him on the DM, you were disrespectful, so I have to be disrespectful back. If you were respectful, then I’d be respectful but I have to make an example out of you. I let him know in the DM then he put out the video saying ‘Oh I want to kill you, I want to kill you.’ Then I f***ing released the DMs saying look this is what happened when I DM’d him.”
Whether you agree with Adesanya’s actions or not, the 31 year old made it clear that if you respect him, he will respect you back. But if you don’t…
“I’m not an asshole,” Adesanya stated. “But if you’re an asshole to me, oh boy, I can give it right back.”
Do you think Israel Adesanya was justified in his post fight antics at UFC 253?
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