If you thought today’s weigh-in faceoffs between Israel Adesanya and Paulo Costa could get heated, well, you were right.

Costa throws white belt at Adesanya; things go off the rails

At the pre-fight presser for UFC 253, Adesanya and Costa verbally sparred over each other’s jiu-jitsu skills. Costa holds a black belt in BJJ, and he argued the middleweight champ’s ground game is extremely subpar. Adesanya, not surprisingly, disagreed. 

Well, it’s likely on account of that ‘disagreement’ that the scuffle below unfolded.

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

Mentioned in this article:

More About: