It looks like we might have a middleweight title fight on our hands, but it’s not the one we were all expecting.
On Tuesday, reports came out that Paulo Costa, the presumptive next title challenger for recently crowned Israel Adesanya, had suffered an injury that would sideline him for the foreseeable future. In response, former middleweight title challenger Yoel Romero did what any enterprising fighter would, he inserted himself into the situation with a simple Tweet.
If Costa really is out, Romero would, in many ways, make sense for Adesanya. The former world champion and Olympic silver medalist in wrestling is only 1-3 in his last four fights, but arguably won all three of his decision losses, including his most recent fight, a three-round bout with Costa that put Costa in the position for a title fight. And apparently, Adesanya agrees. The middleweight champion also posted to Twitter yesterday, revealing that he’d been made aware of the Costa situation and that he and his team had already been looking at a fight with Romero in the meantime.
That could be what Dana White was talking about when yesterday he admitted they were already looking into other options for Adesanya. If so, that’s obviously excellent news for Romero. But while Romero seems happy he’ll get another shot at the title, he did seem to take a bit of umbrage with Adesanya using his signature catchphrase - “I see you soon, boi.”
“Hey Israel, why you say ‘I see you, boy’? Why you say, ‘I see you soon, boy’? No, no, no. You don’t need to say something like this. Give me the f*cking date. Give me the f*cking date. Tell Dana White the f*cking date. Alright? That’s it.”
Of course, if all this comes to pass, that leaves Paulo Costa out in the cold. Since defeating Romero, Borrachinha has been active in trying to build a fight with Adesanya, and this injury setback could end up derailing that entirely. Costa certainly did not seem all that excited about Romero’s callout, or the speed with which things seem to be progressing without him.
It’s obviously very early on but things certainly do appear to be slipping out of the grasp of Costa. After all, when both a champion and a challenger want a fight, it tends to end up happening.
(MMA Fighting)
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