UFC’s Paulo Costa Admits To Fighting Drunk

Paulo Costa lost his UFC 253 fight to Israel Adesanya, Many thought this would be an even fight, maybe even a slugfest. That wasn’t the case at all, but there’s a good reason for the one-sided bout. According to Costa, he was drunk.

In a recent YouTube video, Costa admitted that he was at least hungover, maybe a little drunk when he stepped into the Octagon. The fight was at 9:00 AM, to be fair. He had a late night and that booze hadn’t worn off just yet.

“I was kind of drunk [when] I fought, maybe, on hangover. I couldn’t sleep because of the [leg] cramps. Keep in mind that the fight happens at 9 a.m. [local time], we have to wake up at 5 to get ready, stretch, wrap the hands. The UFC told us to wake up at 5 in the morning to go to the arena to fight. I hadn’t slept until 2:30.”

“It was my mistake and I don’t blame anyone else, it was something I chose [to do], but, in order to try to sleep, because I had to sleep since I was awake for 24 hours, I had wine, too much wine, a bottle [of wine] to try to blackout. I had a glass and didn’t work. Two glasses, it didn’t work. Half bottle, didn’t work. I had it all.”

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It doesn’t matter how much you prepare for a fight. If you go into the situation with a buzz odds are it won’t end well. Costa was obviously missing his edge, and it cost him. This interview was in Portuguese, but there were subtitles. You can check out the video below.