‘They’re both juicy boys’, Israel Adesanya previews UFC Vegas 41’s Costa vs. Vettori

This weekend’s UFC offering is headlined by a clash of recent UFC middleweight title challengers with Paulo Costa taking on Marvin Vettori. Both men…

By: Tim Bissell | 2 years ago
‘They’re both juicy boys’, Israel Adesanya previews UFC Vegas 41’s Costa vs. Vettori
Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

This weekend’s UFC offering is headlined by a clash of recent UFC middleweight title challengers with Paulo Costa taking on Marvin Vettori. Both men are coming off losses and will be hoping to rebound back into the win column. Both of those losses were to the same man, UFC champ Israel Adesanya.

So who better to break down the contest than ‘The Last Stylebender’ himself?

Check out the video below to see how Adesanya sees the fight between his two most recent title challengers going.

As you’d expect Adesanya’s breakdown includes a couple of digs directed at this weekend’s main eventers. The current champ brings up the fact that both Costa and Vettori have been flagged for USADA violations in the past.

“They’ve both been popped for shit, that’s right, they’re both juicy boys,” Adesanya said (ht MMA Fighting). “They’ve both been popped, we need that to be known. These people forget so I need to remind people that, yeah, they’re both juicy boys.”

Vettori lost to Adesanya at UFC 263 in June. That defeat snapped a five-fight winning streak for the Italian. He began that streak after losing to Adesanya at UFC on FOX: Poirier vs. Gaethje back in 2018.

Costa’s loss to Adesanya was at UFC 253 last year. That was the first defeat of the Brazilian’s pro career. Prior that he’d been flawless in 13 fights and had won four of his five UFC contests by TKO. The other victory was a unanimous decision over Yoel Romero.

Share this story

About the author
Tim Bissell
Tim Bissell

Tim Bissell is a writer, editor and deputy site manager for Bloody Elbow. He has covered combat sports since 2015. Tim covers news and events and has also written longform and investigative pieces. Among Tim's specialties are the intersections between crime and combat sports. Tim has also covered head trauma, concussions and CTE in great detail.

Tim is also BE's lead (only) sumo reporter. He blogs about that sport here and on his own substack, Sumo Stomp!

Email me at tim@bloodyelbow.com. Nice messages will get a response.

More from the author

Bloody Elbow Podcast
Related Stories