The vídeo of the
altercation between Paulo Costa
and Khamzat
Chimaev posted on Costa´s YouTube channel earlier this week led
to mixed reactions in the MMA community.
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Some fans thought it was theater created by both teams in order to
make a potential matchup for UFC 283 in Rio de Janeiro, while
others thought the conflict was real since it would make no sense
for Chimaev to fight Costa in Brazil when he’s already so close to
the welterweight title.
Chimaev’s coach, Alan “Finfou” Nascimento, told Sherdog.com that
the altercation was real. The black belt added that the bad blood
began when Costa published a video on social media cheering on
Nate
Diaz while badmouthing Chimaev.
“Khamzat didn’t like the things he said about him and when we
arrived at [the UFC Performance Institute], ‘Borrachinha’ was there
working with Diaz’s coach, Jake Shields,
in the same area,” Nascimento said. “Khamzat immediately wanted to
go there to talk to him, but I told him to cool off since we were
in the fight week. He got mad because he never disrespected any
opponent and he couldn’t understand ‘Borrachinha’ talking
trash about him.”
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According to Nascimento, Chimaev later
called Borrachinha, who came with Shields and his fiancee who was
filming the whole situation. That’s when the discussion
started.
“‘Borrachinha’ wanted to ride the momentum of someone else. He can
see that Chimaev is on the rise, that the fight with Nate Diaz is
having a great impact and he wanted to capitalize on the
situation,” Nascimento said. “In Brazil, we don’t have this trash
talk way. In our country and also in Chimaev’s, we have to be very
careful with what you say, because it has consequences and it is
often not good, as we could see in the fight between Conor and
Khabib. I totally condemn that kind of attitude. That’s not in the
roots of Brazilian vale tudo, jiu-jitsu and MMA.”
Still, Nascimento recognizes that that possibility of a fight
between Costa and Chimaev would be welcomed by the Chechen if he
defeats Diaz at UFC 279.
“Khamzat loves challenges. I have no doubt he would accept that
fight, if UFC likes that possibility,” Nascimento said. “Since the
UFC has to make the trilogy between Usman and Edwards, and he was
already planning to have his next fight in middleweight, a top
ranked guy like ‘Borrachinha’ would be a great challenge to get him
close to another belt dispute. And for all the trash talk
‘Borrachinha’ is doing, I would say that the fans would be behind
us. But everything would depend on what the UFC wants.”