in a much-anticipated middleweight title clash, Paulo Costa takes on the undisputed champion, Israel Adesanya. The Eraser has not left any stones unturned ahead of the biggest fight of his MMA career.
The unprecedented circumstances during the pandemic have hampered the training of almost all the UFC fighters before the competition. However, the business is as usual for Paulo Costa who trains in his brother’s gym.
Thanks to the assistance of his brother and former fighter, Carlos Costa, Paulo Costa looks ready for the battle against Israel Adesanya. And a lot of credit has to be given to his team who helped him out throughout the training camp.
Paulo Costa is battle-ready for UFC 253
For the title fight against Israel Adesanya, Paulo Costa brought in some world-class mixed martial artists to help him prepare for UFC 253. One of them is 26 years old Muay Thai champion, Vanderlei Toquinho.
Vanderlei “Toquinho” Goncalves fights at 170 lbs which is a weight class below Paulo Costa. However, Vanderlei Toquinho’s built is very similar to Israel Adesanya’s. He has immense experience in kickboxing, which explains why Costa decided to bring him in for UFC 253.
Vanderlei Toquinho has a record of 25 wins, 6 losses out of the 33 fights in his career. Talking about his experience after the training camp, Vanderlei Toquinho is confident that Costa will be the middleweight champion at UFC 253. he stated:
“I’m not able to repeat techniques because he learns things very fast. Paulo is a complete fighter, he has everything he needs to beat Adesanya. it’s just a matter of time.”
Apart from him, 29 years old, boxing and jiu-jitsu expert, Atila Megatron is also part of the Costa’s UFC 253 training camp. Atila Megatron is a brown belt in jiu-jitsu and an experienced boxer. But it’s not an easy task for him to keep up with UFC middleweight Paulo Costa. On the UFC countdown show for UFC 253, Atila Megatron stated:
“I always need to be improvising and pushing the envelope otherwise he’ll leave me behind.”
Though Paulo Costa has done everything right leading up to the fight, it’s hard to say whether it will be enough to dethrone the current middleweight king. Israel Adesanya is arguably the best striker in UFC right now. And it’s a whole another scenario when he is throwing the faints and making you miss inside the octagon. But, Paulo Costa is definitely going to bring the fight to the champion like no one has ever done before.
