Paulo Costa believes he stole Khamzat Chimaev’s hype after UFC 279: “Motherf*cker I stole everything you had”

UFC middleweight contender Paulo Costa believes he has to fight Khamzat Chimaev next.

‘The Eraser’ is fresh off his unanimous decision victory over Luke Rockhold last month. The win was an important one for the Brazilian, as he has lost two straight. Costa had dropped two straight bouts against Israel Adesanya and Marvin Vettori.

Just weeks after securing his last win, the Brazilian nearly got into another fight. Not in an official capacity, but in the UFC Performance Institute. During UFC 279 fight week, Costa got into a verbal altercation with Khamzat Chimaev.

‘Borz’ was set to headline the Las Vegas-based pay-per-view, however, it didn’t happen. Chimaev badly missed weight for his main event against Nate Diaz. As such, he was bumped down to the co-main event against Kevin Holland, while Tony Ferguson was bumped up.

The Chechen fighter wound up winning the makeshift fight against ‘Trailblazer’ by first-round submission. Following the contest, Chimaev, along with his coach and Dana White, signaled that he would compete at middleweight moving forward.

If that happens, Paulo Costa would love the first crack at Khamzat Chimaev. The Brazilian discussed the matchup in an interview on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani. There, Costa stated that he took Chimaev’s hype during fight week.

Furthermore, the former title challenger also speculated that he’s the reason his foe didn’t make weight. Due to their rivalry, Costa believes that a clash with Chimaev is the fight to make.

“I think, Chimaev [is the fight to make], yeah.” stated Paulo Costa. “I stole some of his hype, I stole his night of sleep, I stole his cap, I stole his main event fight, I stole everything. Chimaev, you need to do something. Motherf*cker, I stole everything that you had! Everything that you had. I stole your night’s sleep, I stole your weigh-in, I stole everything.”

He continued, “You are stupid, you’re so crazy… I think I need to fight that guy. For sure [I’m the reason he missed weight]. Because he became so angry, so stressed, he gave up. He missed weight by eight pounds, almost nine, he gave up for sure.”

Do you want to see Paulo Costa vs. Khamzat Chimaev? Sound off in the comment section below!