Israel Adesanya suggests Paulo Costa fight Vettori, Gastelum to earn title fight rematch

Paulo Costa has been adamant about requesting a rematch following a one-sided TKO loss to UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya at UFC 253.

While most observers consider this to be a rather overly ambitious request on Costa’s part, the champion says he is open to the idea of fighting Costa again, and has suggestions for the Brazilian as to how he can get the rematch.

Israel alluded to the “two teammates [he] fought,” Kelvin Gastelum and “the Italian” (Marvin Vettori), and suggested that Costa fight one of them to muscle his way back into the title picture.

Following UFC 253, Costa criticized Adesanya for his pre- and post-fight antics, including performing what appeared to be a dry-humping motion on Costa after the referee called their fight. However, the one-sided nature of the fight makes an immediate rematch highly unlikely.