Paulo Costa Reveals Reason He Pulled Out Of Yoel Romero Fight
Middleweight contender Paulo Costa has finally revealed the reason behind his canceled UFC on ESPN 3 bout with Yoel Romero.
Costa and Romero were supposed to compete against each other in the main event of the Sunrise, Florida-based card on April 27 before it emerged that the former was no longer on the card.
The reasons behind his withdrawal were undisclosed, leading to plenty of speculation. However, according to Costa, the main reason was
“I was called to fight Romero. I signed the contract; he hadn’t signed it,” Costa told Combate.com (h/t MMAJunkie). “He’d gone to a reality show, and we were in this indecision of whether he’d be able to fight or not. When he came back from the reality show and was able to sign the contract at last – in the same week he was back, the New York Athletic State Commission asked me to make a statement about a medication I’d taken for my stomach.
“And then they said, ‘In order for you to answer this, you won’t be able to fight, unfortunately. You’re unfortunately going to be ineligible for this fight because you need to notify to us what it is that you took for your stomach.’”
“It was a simple medicine, ‘Plasil’ (used commonly in Brazil for nausea). It’s not doping. It has nothing to do with doping. You take it when you feel some type of stomach discomfort. So because of that – I didn’t understand it, either – they said that I couldn’t fight him, because I had to figure this out first.”
Denies PED Use
Costa has long been suspected of PED use. Romero recently claimed he heard the Brazilian had failed a USADA drug test. He would later state he wasn’t sure if it was accurate.
Regardless, Costa was not a fan of the accusations and plans on delivering extra punishment on Romero when they eventually meet.
“It’s bad,” Costa added. “Even though it was a false rumor, it creates that ‘smoke,’ like people say. Until people realize it’s not like that at all, maybe it gives a bad image, you get a bad image.”
“But there’s nothing to say. Simply none of that happened. I never used any of these artifices, such as doping or anything like that. And USADA is there to prove that. I will hit him [Romero] with more gusto. I will, for sure. Each strike will have some extra pleasure.”
