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SALT LAKE CITY – Paulo Costa was lots fired up early within the day Friday, nicely earlier than he obtained within the cage with Luke Rockhold.
After Costa made weight for UFC 278 in Salt Lake Metropolis on the official weigh-ins, he went on a brief expletive-filled rant for the UFC officers and media in attendance on the host resort in Salt Lake Metropolis.
Costa stated a consultant for the U.S. Anti-Doping Company (USADA), the UFC’s drug-testing associate, confirmed up at his resort room early within the morning whereas he was slicing weight in preparation for his journey to the size just a few hours later. Not solely did they arrive to get a pattern from him throughout a time that many fighters are dehydrated and slicing their closing kilos, however he stated their check included a blood draw.
Costa’s criticism about USADA’s timing is just not a brand new one amongst fighters. The company requires the UFC’s fighters to maintain it apprised of the place they are going to be, which permits representatives to point out up unannounced for random drug checks. That technique is supposed to maintain any fighter who may take into account breaking the foundations from doing so, but it surely has ruffled plenty of feathers, too, when the timing is dangerous.
UFC president Dana White was not pleased with how USADA dealt with Costa’s drug check early Friday, and stated he spoke to him about it on the ceremonial weigh-ins.
“I apologized to (Costa) on stage. That’ll by no means occur once more to any fighter,” White stated at his UFC 278 post-event information convention. “(USADA representatives) don’t find out about combating the way in which that individuals who find out about combating find out about combating. You don’t go in and check a man at 6 within the morning when he’s slicing weight. The end result’s going to be the identical just a few hours later. You wait. I apologized to him on stage when he got here out, and that received’t occur to a different fighter once more.”
Costa (14-2 MMA, 6-2 UFC) outlasted Rockhold (16-6 MMA, 6-5 UFC) for a unanimous decision sweep of the scorecards within the co-main occasion at Vivint Enviornment. Rockhold was a bloody mess after the battle and stated in an in-cage interview with Joe Rogan that it seemingly was his closing bout. Costa and Rockhold each got $50,000 bonuses for Fight of the Night.
The win was a vital one for Brazil’s Costa, who snapped a two-fight skid. At UFC 253 practically two years in the past, he was knocked out by Israel Adesanya in a middleweight title battle for the primary lack of his profession. In his return greater than a 12 months later, he couldn’t make the middleweight restrict on the size and requested a fight-week change to gentle heavyweight towards Marvin Vettori, who then beat him with a unanimous resolution.
Costa stated after his win over Rockhold that his UFC contract both was up after UFC 278 or about to be up. A 3rd straight loss may need seen him bounced from the promotion. However with the win, White stated he needs to see the 31-year-old again within the UFC.
“(I’ve) nothing however respect for each of these guys tonight. In fact we’d wish to re-sign (Costa). We’ll see what occurs.”
For extra on the cardboard, go to MMA Junkie’s occasion hub for UFC 278.
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