It is no secret that Israel Adesanya and Paulo Costa are not fans of each other. This came to a head recently, when the two got into a heated shouting match on television.
At UFC 253, Adesanya will be looking for his second middleweight title defense against Costa. The two have been going back and forth for a while, but they were forced to delay their fight due to an injury to the challenger. However they are now set to fight next month, which gives them the opportunity to end their rivalry that was started nearly two years ago.
Israel Adesanya and Paulo Costa Get Into Shouting Match On SportsCenter
Ahead of their UFC 253 matchup, Israel Adesanya and Paulo Costa having been doing the typical rounds of media for a big fight, including an appearance on SportsCenter. With each man appearing on Skype, the interview was fairly innocuous at first, but quickly began getting heated when the champion began to ridicule the challenger. Costa would fire back, and around eight minutes into the interview, the situation would devolve into a shouting match that would see Izzy flip off Costa and dry heave, as the Brazilian unbuttoned his shirt to expose his jacked physique.
When @stylebender and @BorrachinhaMMA appeared together on @SportsCenter, things got predictably combative 😅 pic.twitter.com/mje30k0yhO
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) August 21, 2020
As far as on air beefs between fighters, this was about as strange as it gets in MMA. That is not to say this was not entertaining to watch, but it was certainly a wild time on SportsCenter. It also makes it seem like a good thing that Adesanya and Costa were in separate places for this interview, as things would have likely gotten more heated.
Looking back on the rivalry between Israel Adesanya and Paulo Costa, there will be some pretty hilarious moments, no matter who wins the fight. These two seem to genuinely dislike each other, but they sure are entertaining when sharing a room.
