Khamzat Chimaev had to be restrained by his teammates after getting into a heated altercation with UFC rival Paulo Costa.
Chimaev, who fights Nate Diaz this Saturday at UFC 279, is finishing off his training camp at the UFC's Performance Institute in Las Vegas. Costa has been sharpening up his grappling skills after beating Luke Rockhold last month by working with Diaz's teammate and former UFC title challenger, Jake Shields.
Whilst Costa was grappling with Shields, Chimaev could be seen watching on from outside of the cage. The Chechen, who was accompanied by several of his teammates, then asked Costa: "Did you say you want to f*** me up?" to which Costa replied: "I want to fight you, do you want to fight me?" Chimaev became irate and then had to be held back by his training partners, as he said: "I want to f*** you up now p**** boy. Brazilian p*****.
Chimaev then mocked Costa for being humped by current 185lb champion Israel Adesanya after he was knocked out by him in their title fight two years ago. "What happened with Israel, he f***ed your ass, yeah? I'm here now, you said you were going to f*** me up. You're a p**** now," Chimaev added.
Costa appeared to have angered Chimaev after recently issuing a prediction on his upcoming fight with Diaz. During an Instagram video, Costa backed Diaz to hand the Chechen his first loss and labelled Chimaev as a fake gangster. Diaz, a UFC veteran of 15 years, is set to leave the promotion after his fight with Chimaev.
"I think Nate Diaz will beat him, Nate is a real gangster," Costa said. "Chimaev calls himself a real gangster, but he's just a gourmet Chechen. He's not a real gangster, f*** that guy. Nate Diaz will f*** him up, I'm with Nate all day. F*** that gourmet Chechen. If Chimaev beats Nate Diaz, we can do this [fight] for my last one." Costa has one more left on his UFC contract after his recent win over Rockhold.
What are your thoughts on Khamzat Chimaev and Paulo Costa's altercation? Let us know in the comments section below
Diaz's training partner Shields thinks Chimaev proved Costa's point by confronting him at the Performance Institute. Shields thinks Chimaev was intentionally making a scene and would have taken action if he wanted to fight Costa.
"If he wanted to fight Paulo, he would’ve run in there and started swinging on him, not stood outside the cage and say, ‘Let’s fight right now. Let’s fight right now.’ It seemed kind of a weak thing. I guess that’s why he was upset because Paulo called him a fake gangster, and that was a perfect example of him being a fake gangster," Shields told MMA Junkie.
