UFC middleweight contender Paulo Costa is seemingly not over USADA’s weight-cut interruption prior to UFC 278 last month.
At the August 20 pay-per-view, held at Salt Lake City’s Vivint Arena, Costa shared the Octagon with Luke Rockhold. While he got the job done on fight night, outpointing the former champion in the event’s FOTN, “Borrachinha” had more than just a feud with Rockhold on his mind during fight week.
Having arrived in Las Vegas last October for his bout with Marvin Vettori massively overweight, forcing the contest to be moved to light heavyweight, Costa’s cut to middleweight was crucial at UFC 278.
With that said, a 6 a.m. visit from USADA during the final stages of his weight cut on Friday morning wouldn’t have been ideal…
Costa quickly made his displeasure clear during the weigh-ins, proclaiming “f*ck USADA” after successfully making the 186-pound limit. His frustration was shared by UFC President Dana White, who apologized to Costa after the early-morning test.
But despite being almost a month on, the #6-ranked middleweight still has the anti-doping agency at the top of his list of enemies.
Costa Holds A Grudge…
During a recent appearance on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Costa was asked about a Twitter post that appeared to take another dig at USADA following his run-in with agents in Utah.
After questioning whether the early weigh-in day test was designed to damage his chances of making the middleweight limit because of a grudge held against him due to his size and strength, Costa’s sights zoned in on the head of USADA.
“When USADA came at 6 AM, I was like, ‘What the f*ck is going on?’ Man, I don’t know, I think USADA were mad with me,” Costa said. “I think (they were like), ‘We will f*ck this guy because this guy cannot be so strong like this. Why he so strong? Why he so big? We need to f*ck him. We need to put his weight cut in trouble. Let’s f*ck him!’
“I don’t know, man. I really would like to know who is the head of the f*ck USADA. Man, this guy, oh my God, this guy is p*ssing me off a lot. I would like to know. If I know, this guy’s in trouble.”
A certain CEO named Travis T. Tygart has just slipped lower into his office chair…
What did you make of USADA’s decision to test Paulo Costa on the morning of the UFC 278 weigh-ins?