New Orleans — Paulo Costa admits he went through “maybe the worst moment” of his career ahead of UFC 318 on Saturday.
Costa, who entered the fight 1-4 in his last five, came away with a unanimous decision victory over a game Roman Kopylov in the night’s co-main event.
“Kopylov, he’s a great fighter, he’s top-level, award-level, high-level striking,” Costa (15-4) said following the event, speaking with media outlets including Cageside Press.
That worst moment, more of a string of moments for Costa, left him needing to rebuild his confidence, he admitted. Which may have played a factor in the lack of a finish in the fight.
“My confidence, I need to work more on that, because this is the first fight after these two losses. I’ve got to gain back, regain the confidence,” he stated. “Finish this fight, the next moment. I was more conservative for sure.”
Entering UFC 318 off back-to-back losses and a 1-4 record, the former title challenger outlined the issues he’d had in recent years. He also discounted his title fight loss to Israel Adesanya, noting that there were circumstances, some of which were outside of his control, that impacted his performance in the fight. And one factor that was very much within his control, that has been well-documented.
“I don’t count that loss to Adesanya because I don’t want to take credit from him, but man, I was [not sleeping], I was in Abu Dhabi, and Abu Dhabi is crazy because when we make weight on Friday morning, the fight was like Saturday morning, Saturday 5AM, 6AM. So it didn’t give time back, it was horrible to me,” stated Costa. UFC fighters usually have a longer window to rehydrate. Fighting at 6AM local time is far from the norm. Then, there was his drinking. “Everybody knows about the wine stuff, I was pretty much drunk. So I don’t count that.”
“After that, I think [Marvin] Vettori was not very fair, the result.” Costa had a point deducted due to an eye poke in his decision loss to the Italian, in a fight that had to be moved up an entire weight class when Paulo Costa struggled with his weight. Following the Vettori fight, Costa noted he beat Luke Rockhold, but then lost to both Robert Whittaker and Sean Strickland. “These two hurt me, because I was there, I could perform better, but my game plan, my strategy was not good. I was bouncing and countering instead of going forward.”
Costa credits his team for changing his mindset, telling him that “you are the hunter, you are the bully, you need to go forward, pressure, [throw] your hands, kicks. They are so strong, maybe the most strong in the division.”
“So I chose that, and here I am.”
Watch the full UFC 318 post-fight press conference with Paulo Costa above.
