Israel Adesanya rips Paulo Costa, explains UFC 248 fight with skidding Yoel Romero

LAS VEGAS – Israel Adesanya understands the criticism about his UFC 248 title fight with Yoel Romero, but he said these types of fights won’t be commonplace during his reign.

Romero (13-4 MMA, 9-3 UFC) challenges Adesanya (18-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC) for the UFC middleweight belt in Saturday’s headliner, despite the fact he’s coming off back-to-back defeats and has lost three of his past four overall. The champion specifically asked for the matchup, and the UFC brass obliged.

Although Romero is a serious threat inside the octagon, there’s something to be said for fighting a contender on the upswing, and Adesanya said he’ll do that many times over.

“It shouldn’t be a precedent, but you have to understand the landscape of the UFC middleweight division was weird,” Adesanya told reporters, including MMA Junkie, at UFC 248 open workouts on Wednesday.

“I don’t want to be that guy like the former champion, when you hold the division up. I want to be active. I want to be fighting. When I say I want to fight four times in a year, you’ve seen me do it before. You’ve seen me do it five times with a day extra. I still make it a year. I want to be an active champion. I want to do right by the division like ‘GSP’ did to it, like Demetrious (Johnson) did at flyweight, like Anderson (Silva) did at middleweight. Make the middleweight division great, man.”

If everything had gone as the UFC originally wanted, Adesanya would not be fighting Romero, but instead Paulo Costa (13-0 MMA, 5-0 UFC), who beat Romero by split decision at UFC 241 in August.

Unfortunately, Costa suffered an injury that cause him to undergo surgery, and the timeline for the matchup did not sync up. Adesanya said Costa’s time will come, though, likely after he takes care of business against Romero in the headlining matchup, which takes place at T-Mobile Arena and airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and ESPN+/UFC Fight Pass.

“I called him (out) after the last fight, but then – come on, man,” Adesanya said. “I’m going to pop that (expletive) before USADA does, I swear to God. I want to be the first one to do it.

“He’s next in line, but I might not give him any mind (during my post-fight interview). I’ve already done that in Melbourne. The promo is already there, if you will. If you try something stupid, I’ll pop him again.”