Paulo Costa Injured, UFC Working On ‘Something Else’ For Israel Adesanya
It looks like Paulo Costa will not be the first to challenge newly-crowned UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya for his throne. Adesanya won the strap from Robert Whittaker earlier this month in Melbourne.
After the fight, Costa, who comes off a big win over Yoel Romero, was announced as Adesanya’s next challenger. No official date was ever announced for Adesanya vs. Costa. Now, per UFC President Dana White in a recent interview with The Schmo, Costa has suffered a bicep injury that required surgical repair. He’ll be out-of-action for nearly a year.
“Yeah, he had surgery on his bicep,” White admitted. “So, he’s out for eight months. But we are working on something else with Israel right now.”
It should be interesting to see who the UFC matches Adesanya up with next instead. When asked if the highly-anticipated super fight against light heavyweight king Jon “Bones” Jones is on the table, White shut the idea down.
“No, he [Adesanya] just won the title,” White said. “To do a Jones super fight right now doesn’t make sense. There’s guys in his own weight division that he can fight. So…..”
Who do you think Adesanya will defend his middleweight title against first? Should he fight Jones?
