Paulo Costa Plans To Retire Before 36, Donate Brain For Research

UFC middleweight contender Paulo Costa does not plan on competing for a long time.

Costa, 28, is currently undefeated and is next in line to challenge Israel Adesanya for the middleweight title. If he defeats Adesanya, he would have become a UFC champion in just six fights for the promotion.

And that would mean he is already on track with his career goals as Costa hopes to achieve everything possible before he turns 36 given his concerns about brain damage.

“We know that the brain is made of cells that don’t regenerate anymore, we can only lose them,” Costa said in an interview with Ag Fight (via Bloody Elbow). “As you age, that amount of cells decreases, so your reflexes become slower, your speech becomes worse, you forget things.

“I do some research some times. There is Rose, from the Gracie family, she runs a brain donation campaign, for fighters, there’s a whole field of research about that. I want to make my career as soon as possible, conquer everything, then I don’t want to fight after I’m 36. I would gladly give them my brain.”

Costa is one of the heavy hitters in the middleweight division and that can lead to him taking some damage along the way. But for the Brazilian, everyone takes damage differently, so all that can be done is to minimize it as much as possible.

“That’s a pretty serious issue, because we don’t have the data to find out how much that can affect each of us,” he added. “Each one will have different symptoms and will react different to that amount of strikes.

“What you can do is fight in a way that minimizes those blows to the head. During a training session, you can wear protective gear, like helmets. That can really minimize the damage. I wear big gloves, I never spar in MMA gloves, I always wear 16-ounce gloves, so I can avoid strikes to the head.”

What do you make of Costa’s plans to be done with fighting before 36?