Paulo Costa was reportedly going to get the title shot against Adesanya until a second bicep surgery took him out of action. Costa recently started posting training footage on his Instagram page and UFC President Dana White would like to see the recovering fighter slow things down a little bit.
“Costa is in this big rush,” White said at the UFC 246 post-fight press conference (via Guilherme Cruz of MMA Fighting). “We’re watching his Instagram the other day, and the guy is working out like he’s training for a fight right now. You shouldn’t be doing that when you just got done with surgery, and they are saying now you’ll be ready for June. He shouldn’t be training like that. You know what happens when you do that? You get hurt again. He needs to pump the brakes and slow down, make sure he’s 100 percent and doesn’t get hurt again, and then we can do that fight after Romero.”
The recovering Costa could get the next title shot after UFC 248 comes to a conclusion, but nothing is set in stone at this time.
Costa wishes that Adesanya would’ve waited to face him because Costa believes their bout could be the bigger money maker.
“Poor guy,” Costa said to MMA Fighting. “Adesanya understands nothing about business, pay-per-view sales, about money. He understands nothing. He has no idea that a fight with me would be bigger than any other, especially against Romero.”
UFC 248 takes place on Saturday, March 3 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada with Israel Adesanya and Yoel Romero headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
