Former UFC middleweight No. 1 contender Paulo Costa
recently did a live session on his YouTube channel in which he
revealed a desire to face Robert
Whittaker for the interim 185-pound belt.
“Whitaker is No. 1 in the rankings, I’m No. 2,” Costa said. “Once
[Israel] Adesanya goes up to light heavyweight, it makes sense to
have an interim title fight. I’ve already talked to [UFC president
Dana White] and he said he would love to see that fight.”
There is recent precedent for such a move in the middleweight
division: When Whittaker, who was the reigning champion at the
time, was unable to compete at UFC 236 because he was recovering
from hernia surgery, the promotion booked an interim title clash
between Adesanya and Kelvin
Gastelum. With Adesanya expected to move to 205 pounds to
challenge reigning light heavyweight king Jan
Blachowicz, it’s unclear how long it will be until “The Last
Stylebender” makes another title defense at 185 pounds.
In the same live session, “Borrachinha” discussed his title fight
with Adesanya at UFC 253, which he lost by technical knockout in
the second round. Costa revealed that he should have pulled out of
the fight.
“I don’t like to give excuses but many things happened before that
fight. I didn’t sleep the night before because my leg was in bad
condition. I should have postponed that fight to the next week,”
Costa said. “I just saw what happened to [Patricky
Freire] in Bellator. He woke up with labyrinthitis symptoms
(inner ear disorder) on the day of the fight and his trainer made
the right decision to postpone it. I made a big mistake.”
Costa also discussed how he was forced to adapt his strategy
against Adesanya.
“I listened to my brother and head coach to follow a different
strategy than I usually do because he knew I was not in good
condition, so he asked to move more and save energy in the first
two rounds to explode after the third, and that was my biggest
mistake,” Costa said.
“I’m an explosive fighter and I have to explode all the time, not
save energy. I have to hunt my opponent in the Octagon from the
beginning as I always have. But I learned a lot from that bad
experience and from now on the fans will always see the old
‘Borrachinha’ they know.”