Paulo Costa Fires Barbs At ‘Fragile Chin’ Luke Rockhold After PED Accusations
One-time UFC middleweight title challenger, Paulo Costa has responded to a recent callout from former division kingpin, Luke Rockhold, accusing the Californian veteran of performance-enhancing drug use.
Costa, who has suffered defeat in his two most recent Octagon outings, most recently headlined UFC Vegas 41 back in October of last year, dropped a unanimous decision loss against fellow one-time middleweight title challenger, Marvin Vettori – in an eventual light heavyweight matchup.
The defeat followed the first blemish of Costa’s professional career when he headlined a September 2020 Abu Dhabi, UAE event against current division best, Israel Adesanya, suffering a second round knockout loss.
Yet to feature since his light heavyweight outing against Trento native, Vettori, Costa has been linked to numerous matchups in his time away from the Octagon – including middleweight contender, Sean Strickland, however, the latter has since booked a UFC 277 pairing with Brazilian striker, Alex Pereira for July.
One name that appears to always revolve around Belo Horizonte native, Costa, however, is former UFC and Strikeforce middleweight champion, Rockhold – who has been out of action since a knockout loss to former light heavyweight titleholder, Jan Blachowicz back in July 2019.
Paulo Costa and Luke Rockhold have long been on an Octagon collision course
Targeting a return to the Octagon this year, Rockhold, whom was briefly booked to feature at UFC 268 back in November against Strickland, claimed that Costa was previously utilizing performance-enhancing drugs prior to his recent run of defeats.
“He’s (Paulo Costa) Making excuses left and right,” Luke Rockhold said on The MMA Hour. “He’s missed weight twice for that fight and he’s making excuses on not contractually agreeing to this fight because of the weight issues they’re placing upon him. Within all these rules, it’s like, you don’t want to make weight. You just want to make excuses. You’re a f*cking b*tch when it comes down to it. And your steroids aren’t working anymore, and you got caught up. You’re looking for a way out. He’s always needed assistance in whatever ways. It’s obvious. So, f*cking show up. Show up and show out. Let’s f*cking go.”
Responding to Rockhold’s comments, Costa claimed that the Santa Cruz veteran had a “fragile chin” following recent knockout losses.
“Luke RockOLD (sic) too old retired fighter out of the f*cking ranking,” Paulo Costa tweeted. “Shut up fragile chin.”
Costa then claimed that Rockhold likely believes every fighter from Brazil utilizes performance-enhancing drugs, and reminded him of his knockout loss to former UFC champion, Vitro Belfort in his UFC bow.
“I suspect in (sic) RockOLD (sic) minds all big Brazilian is on steroids,” Paulo Costa tweeted. “Maybe he has bad memories about it.”
Bizarrely, Costa then claimed that his compatriot, Belfort was actually his own father, in another barb aimed at rival, Rockhold.
“After this sh*ts Luke Rockhold said, I will reveal a curiosity,” Paulo Costa tweeted. “Vitor (Belfort) is my dad and it happened when him and my young and sexy mom gets in romace n Rio de Gerais, Brazil. Now everyone knows. That’s what when he bring me to UFC the staff called me ‘Baby Vitor’.”
