Paulo Costa and Khamzat Chimaev got into a heated back-and-forth at the UFC Performance Institute.
Ahead of his UFC 279 headliner against Nate Diaz (20-13 MMA, 15-11 UFC) on Saturday, Chimaev (11-0 MMA, 5-0 UFC) confronted Costa, who was training with Diaz’s teammate Jake Shields.
The pair traded barbs and Chimaev had to be restrained by his team. Costa (13-2 MMA, 5-2 UFC) posted a reaction on his YouTube channel after the altercation and accused Chimaev of being scared.
“I met Chimaev there, and man, he was scared,” Costa said. “The guy stood there and he froze. He froze. I actually was not surprised. As I said before, cupcake Chechen, gourmet Chechen is a bully with small guys.”
Costa, who has one fight left on his UFC contract, is seemingly interested in fighting Chimaev next.
“He called me to talk and I went there, I faced him. He said, ‘Hey Borrachinha, why do you talk about me?’ I said, ‘Man, what did I talk about you? You want to fight me?’ He said, ‘No, no – I want to know what you talk about me.’ I said, ‘Man, I want to fight you. If you beat Nate Diaz, I want to fight you,’ and he froze. He said, ‘OK, so let’s fight now.’ His whole team got in the middle between me and him. Man, this guy is scared. He’s scared as f*ck.
“Just so you know, Chimaev, I don’t need to have a couple of guys with me. I’m an army of one man. I walk alone and I can beat you alone with just one hand.”
You can watch Costa’s view of the confrontation below, courtesy of his YouTube channel:
UFC 279 takes place Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPNEWS and early prelims on ESPN+.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 279.
