UFC middleweight Paulo Costa’s ongoing beef with Khamzat Chimaev extended to a recent interview on The MMA Hour. He and Chimaev faced off backstage not long before Chimaev’s weight miss ahead of UFC 279, which caused Chimaev to lose his first headlining pay-per-view spot. Costa, with one fight remaining on his UFC contract, wants it to be against the “gourmet Chechen”.
“Chimaev, because he’s on [a] high. I stole some of his high. I stole his sleep, I stole his cap, I stole his main event fight. I stole everything.
Paulo Costa Claims He “Stole Everything” From Khamzat Chimaev
Chiamaev, you need to do something, motherf*****,” he said. “I stole everything that you had. Your hat, I stole your night’s sleep, I stole your weigh-in. You are disturbed, so crazy. ‘I cannot do this, I will die.’ So I think I need to fight that guy.”
Although Costa is walking around at a lean 205 pounds, he doesn’t want to cut down to the 170-pound welterweight limit, and invited Khamzat up to middleweight for the fight. “I cannot do 170. You think I can make 170? 185 is the most deep that I can do.”
Costa also claimed that his altercation with Khamzat was responsible for the weight cut. The stress and anger he caused in Khamzat, he claimed, led to poor sleep and his fall from grace as a rising UFC star.
“For sure, [he missed weight because of me]. Because he became so angry, so stressed, and he almost – he gave up. He gave up. He missed the weight for almost eight pounds, almost nine. He gave up, for sure. I stole everything from him. Hype, soul, night of sleep, main event, his hat – do something.”
Khamzat ultimately continued his undefeated UFC run with a dominant first-round stoppage win over Kevin Holland. Paulo Costa, on the other hand, recently corrected his own skid with a victory over former middleweight champ Luke Rockhold. Costa had his own weight miss disaster in his last fight when he was scheduled to face Marvin Vettori, missing the UFC middleweight limit by over twenty pounds. He lost that fight via decision. Before that, Costa failed to secure the middleweight title against Israel Adesanya, who defeated him via TKO.
Costa will hope to establish another winning streak like the one that led him to the middleweight title in the first place. A fight against a popular, dangerous opponent like Khamzat would certainly be a major step in that direction.
Would you want to see Costa vs Khamzat? Let us know in the comments.
