Israel Adesanya expects to beat Paulo Costa rather easily to defend his belt on Saturday night.

In the main event of UFC 253, Adesanya and Costa will finally meet after months of trash-talking. They are both undefeted and many pundits expect the fight to be competitve. Yet, for “The Last Stylebender” he disagrees with that and believes it will be rather easy for him to dispose of the Brazilian.

“I think the muscles fool everyone. The muscles and the whole flurries and fighting punching bags fool everyone,” Israel Adesanya said at media day. “Everyone thinks, wow this is a big fight. I’m like, nah. I’ve already had the fight of the middleweight division, which was Kelvin Gastelum. I’ve already had the biggest fight in the middleweight division crowd-wise, which was Robert Whittaker. I’m gonna make it look easy. A lot of people are gonna be shocked by that.”

Adesanya has been very impressive in the UFC, but Costa has legit one-punch knockout power the champion has to be worried about. Yet, the champ isn’t fazed by that and remains confident he will defend his belt.

If he does get his hand raised on Saturday, he has his eye on Jared Cannonier for his next title defense.

“He’s been the dark horse of the division. I look forward to challenges like that,” he said. “Me and my coaches have had an eye on him for a while.”

Israel Adesanya enters this fight with a perfect 19-0 record including being 8-0 inside the Octagon. He holds notable wins over Robert Whittaker, Kelvin Gastelum, and Yoel Romero, yet many expect Paulo Costa to be his toughest test of his career.

Regardless, it should be a phenomenal fight between two of the best middleweights in the world.

Do you think Israel Adesanya will be able to beat Paulo Costa as easy as he expects to?