On account of what Israel Adesanya and Paulo Costa have said about each other in the preceding months, the two appear to have some serious issues ahead of their fight Saturday.

But, when the middleweight stars ran into each other in Abu Dhabi, where UFC 253 is going down, no fireworks ensued.

Adesanya and Costa keep it respectful

Recently Costa’s manager, Wallid Ismail, posted the video below. As you can see, based off the video clip, the middleweight champ and Costa kept it pretty respectful.

The two do appear to make some comments about each other’s physique, which is nothing new for them. But, all-in-all, considering what they’ve said about each other previously, it was very professional exchange.

Of course, the two are going to have the change to settle their differences in the cage, in just a few days. So why risk ruining that with any type of pre-fight incident?

Further, as any big MMA fan knows, often fighters sling trash talk to promote a fight. So, the two likely aren’t on the best of terms, but they may not have as big of a beef as some think.

UFC 253 line-up

Here is the line-up for UFC 253, which is going down on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, Saturday (line-up via MMA Mania).

UFC 253 PPV Main Card on ESPN+

185 lbs.: UFC Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya vs. Paulo Costa
205 lbs.: Dominick Reyes vs. Jan Blachowicz – for vacant light heavyweight title
125 lbs.: Kai Kara-France vs. Brandon Royval
135 lbs.: Ketlen Vieira vs. Sijara Eubanks
145 lbs.: Hakeem Dawodu vs. Zubaira Tukhugov

UFC 253 Prelims Card on ESPN2/ESPN+

155 lbs.: Brad Riddell vs. Alex Da Silva
170 lbs.: Diego Sanchez vs. Jake Matthews
145 lbs.: Ludovit Klein vs. Shane Young
205 lbs.: Aleksa Camur vs. William Knight

UFC 253 Prelims Card on Fight Pass/ESPN+

265 lbs.: Juan Espino vs. Jeff Hughes
205 lbs.: Khadis Ibragimov vs. Danilo Marques

*Fight card, bout order and the amount of matches subject to change

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