Adesanya on Paulo Costa: ‘I just wanna get him before USADA gets him’

“I just wanna get him before USADA gets him. And eventually if he climbs up the ranks like he thinks he will, eventually we’ll see each other so he can find out.”

It seems inevitable that Israel Adesanya and Paulo Costa will inevitably lock horns inside the Octagon.

Both fighters have lobbed insults at one another for the past year, and ‘Borrachinha’ recently trashed Adesanya’s interim championship win over Kelvin Gastelum, calling ‘The Last Stylebender’ a ‘fake champ’ who put on a ‘sh-t’ performance in the UFC 236 co-main event.

Adesanya, who has gone 6-0 in the UFC since signing with the premiere fight promotion in 2018, responded by calling the Brazilian ‘salty.’

The newly-crowned interim champ also predicted that it’s only a matter of time until the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) catches Costa using performance-enhancing drugs.

“Hold up, fake champ? Does he have a belt? He wishes he was the ‘fake’ champ as well. First of all, didn’t he get popped for something recently for some acai in his stomach or something?” Adesanya said in reference to Costa’s issues with the New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC) on a recent episode of The MMA Hour (h/t Jesse Holland of MMA Mania).

“I just wanna get him before USADA gets him. And eventually if he climbs up the ranks like he thinks he will, eventually we’ll see each other so he can find out. Gastelum’s a tough guy. He [Costa] got touched up after the Uriah [Hall] fight. … A guy like that’s just salty. He’s just salty cause I’m the one getting the shine. They’re trying to steal my shine and I’m like, ‘f*ck no.’”

Adesanya might have Costa in his sights, but the Nigerian-born fighter must first get past reigning UFC middleweight champ Robert Whittaker, who he is expected to face in a title unification bout later this year.