Paulo Costa was in the headlines for a strange reason ahead of his UFC 318 fight this past Saturday.
While most of the attention surrounded Dustin Poirier and Max Holloway this past Saturday at UFC 318, former UFC middleweight title challenger Paulo Costa was heading into a huge fight to save his career.
After suffering a dominant loss to Robert Whittaker, Costa attempted to bounce back against Sean Strickland just a few months later but was narrowly beaten at UFC 302, suffering back-to-back losses.
And then ahead of his UFC 318 fight against Roman Kopylov, it seemed as though the Brazilian’s head was elsewhere as he kicked off a feud with Khamzat Chimaev.
Paulo Costa reveals ‘legal injections’ caused shaking in viral video
Just a few days out from his clash against Kopylov, Costa and the other main card fighters took part in the pre-fight press conference in an attempt to build some last minute hype for the event.
But things didn’t go entirely to plan for ‘The Eraser’ who caused concern among the fans as he sat up on stage visibly shaking uncontrollably.
After the video went viral online, fans speculated whether Costa was on drugs, causing him to shake, however, it wasn’t clear what was wrong with the former title challenger.
Fortunately, though, it didn’t seem to play a part in Costa’s fight as he went on to put on a vintage performance, returning to winning ways after dropping Kopylov during their scrap.
And now just a few days removed from the fight, Costa has revealed what caused the strange shaking during the pre-fight press conference.
“Too much energy, too much real power, real desire to win, you know, I was trusting on this victory and I think NAD, the vitamin,” Costa told Ariel Helwani.
“NAD plus. There’s a company that sponsor the UFC, they sent me some vitamins, it’s injections. Legal injections, I took some injections and it made me so energetic,” Costa continued.
It is unclear what vitamins Costa is talking about having taken, however he claimed they were completely ‘legal’ and provided by a UFC sponsor.
Costa looking to boost his chances of a fight against Chimaev
In just under a month’s time at UFC 319, Dricus Du Plessis is set to defend his title against Khamzat Chimaev in the main event.
And ahead of the event in Chicago, Costa has revealed that in an attempt to secure himself a fight against ‘Borz’, he will travel to the Windy City and be present during fight week.
With the feud between the two growing, the promotion may not allow ‘The Eraser’ at the event considering Khamzat’s history of starting fights with other fighters during fight week.