Dana White scolds MMA media for reporting Adesanya vs. Costa fight

By Tom Taylor - July 21, 2020

UFC President Dana White is not happy about the recent reports that Israel Adesanya will defend the UFC middleweight title against Paulo Costa at UFC 253.

Dana White, Tony Ferguson

News of this UFC 253 middleweight title fight was first reported by Brazilian publication Combate, and subsequently confirmed by MMA Fighting.

Costa himself later confirmed that the fight is “on.”

Contrary to these reports, White claims the fight is not yet official, and is pretty upset that it’s been reported as such.

“I don’t think that’s true,” White said at the UFC on ESPN+ 30 post-fight press conference (via Essentially Sports). “I don’t think both have signed. It’s not done… F***ing guys. They were told not to say anything. Combate breaks it immediately, tweeting, you know? The fight is not done.”

While White claims this Adesanya vs. Costa fight is still not finalized, he also recently assured that there’s nothing barring the fight from being made official.

“There’s no hold up,” White told the assembled MMA media in Abu Dhabi recently. “We just haven’t done it yet. There’s no hold up. We’re focused on Fight Island, I’m not thinking about anything other than this right now. We have fights laid out until October, our schedule’s already made, we’re way ahead of this thing. When it’s time, we’ll announce it.”

Whenever White and the UFC make this Adesanya vs. Costa fight official, its going to be huge.

In fact, Costa’s coach Eric Albarracin recently told BJPENN.com that it will go down as one of the best middleweight title fights ever.

“Paulo Costa vs Adesanya will be the greatest middleweight title fight in history,” he said. “These two hate each other, they are at each other’s throats. When we went to UFC 243, Adesanya called him Ricky Martin, and he does look like Ricky Martin but he hits like Mike Tyson. Adesanya will not step out of the cage there, Costa will erase him.”

What do you think of this complain rom UFC President Dana White.


Topics:

Dana White Israel Adesanya Paulo Costa UFC