UFC veteran Cub Swanson isn’t happy with Paulo Costa claiming he was hungover when he fought Israel Adesanya at UFC 253.
The bout between Costa and Adesanya on Fight Island, which was contested for the UFC Middleweight Championship, wasn’t particularly close — and you won’t find many fighters or fans who disagree with that.
While a parade of reasons have been used to explain why that was the case, this latest remark by Costa certainly sent shockwaves through the MMA sphere.
“I was kind of drunk (when) I fought, maybe, on a hangover. I couldn’t sleep because of the cramps. Keep in mind that the fight happens at 9 a.m., we have to wake up at 5 to get ready, stretch, wrap the hands. The UFC told us to wake up at 5 in the morning to go to the arena to fight. I hadn’t slept until 2:30,” Costa said (h/t MMAFighting.com).
“It was my mistake and I don’t blame anyone else, it was something I chose, but, in order to try to sleep, because I had to sleep since I was awake for 24 hours, I had wine, too much wine, a bottle to try to blackout. I had a glass and didn’t work. Two glasses, it didn’t work. Half bottle didn’t work. I had it all.”
As you can probably tell, the aforementioned Swanson wasn’t best pleased.
Well how dumb can you be? That sounds like self sabotage to me
— Cub Swanson (@CubSwanson) February 28, 2021
“Well how dumb can you be?” Swanson wrote. “That sounds like self sabotage to me”.
Some believe this points to the idea that Costa is purposely making up excuses for his performance, while others are choosing to believe that he’s genuinely telling the truth.
Whatever the case may be it’s time for the Brazilian to move on from what happened against Adesanya because he has a pretty big mission ahead of him – tackling Robert Whittaker in a fight that could vault him straight back into another title shot.
What do you think of this comment from Cub Swanson?