Israel Adesanya and Paulo Costa put on a good show. They thought they did not like each other, but they had some good fights. The fighters insulted each other at the weigh-in and nearly fought there. Paulo gave Israel his white belt, but then Israel said that he was weak in Jiu Jitsu.
Paulo Costa
Costa is a Brazilian fighter. He has a black belt in jiu-jitsu but he doesn’t work on the ground in the Octagon. Out of 13 official fights, only one of them ended with submission, and this was because he knocked out the other person. Costa weighs about 100 pounds for each fight and his powerful punching is his main weapon.
He tries to punch people with his hands. He does this sometimes with kicking too, but he has not knocked out anyone with his legs.
One of the most amazing fights in Brazilian history was against Jamaican Hall. The experienced Hall, himself a great puncher, faced Borracinha on July 7th in Las Vegas. A little earlier, Hall had snapped a three-fight losing streak and planned to make his position secure in the promotion. Costa stormed through UFC with three big knockouts and said he would easily “overpower” Hall.
Confrontation
After long days of fighting, the athletes were finally in the cage. The Brazilian man was much bigger than his opponent: Adesanya seemed to be a different weight class next to him.
The fight started in the usual way. Costa went to attack Adesanya, but Borrachinha was brave and hit him back. Israel also hit Costa’s legs with hard low kicks.
Sometimes, Adesanya stepped up to fight. He was better than the challenger. Costa’s legs were scratched and this slowed down Borrachinha’s pressure.
In the second round, Adesanya took control. He was hitting fast punches that were hard and strong. Costa tried to stay calm after one of these punches knocked him down. He stuck his tongue out like he was pretending to be knocked out. But Borrachinha was not doing so well: he stopped hitting Adesanya at all, but he was constantly taking hard punches and kicks. In one of his exchanges Israel finally brought down Costa with a powerful left side kick, and then brutally fought the challenger with a lot of punches.
The outcome of the fight
Kosta was the first official defeat for Adesanya. The Nigerian fighter laughed and looked happy, and then he shook hands with his Brazilian rival. This was something that happened when Dzyuba and Azmun did it in the FC Zenit locker room.
When Adesanya was interviewed, he said “I am a god” and that Heiters say he is boring. But he also says that he has a boxing record of being undefeated. When fighters miss weight, they should have 90% of their fees taken away because it makes him angry when they win.
