Paulo Costa Breaks Silence on Viral UFC Altercation With Khamzat Chimaev

Getty Paulo Costa

Top-ranked UFC middleweight contender Paulo Costa and welterweight star Khamzat Chimaev got into a viral altercation this week, and Costa recently broke his silence about what happened.

Costa and Chimaev got into a heated argument on Monday at the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas. Chimaev is scheduled to headline UFC 279 on September 10 at the T-Mobile Arena opposite Nate Diaz, whereas “Borrachinha” picked up a thrilling win over ex-middleweight champ Luke Rockhold at UFC 278 last month.

Taking to his YouTube channel after beefing with “Borz,” Costa called Chimaev “scared” and a “cupcake.”

“I met Chimaev there, and man, he was scared,” Costa said (h/t MMA Junkie). “The guy stood there and he froze. He froze. I actually was not surprised. As I said before, cupcake Chechen, gourmet Chechen is a bully with small guys.”

Costa Said He Told Chimaev He Wanted to Fight at the Performance Institute

The No. 6-ranked 185-pound fighter went on to describe the situation from his viewpoint, stating that he was ready to fight Chimaev right there and then.

Costa continued: “He called me to talk and I went there, I faced him. He said, ‘Hey Borrachinha, why do you talk about me?’ I said, ‘Man, what did I talk about you? You want to fight me?’ He said, ‘No, no – I want to know what you talk about me.’ I said, ‘Man, I want to fight you. If you beat Nate Diaz, I want to fight you,’ and he froze. He said, ‘OK, so let’s fight now.’ His whole team got in the middle between me and him. Man, this guy is scared. He’s scared as f***.

“Just so you know, Chimaev, I don’t need to have a couple of guys with me. I’m an army of one man. I walk alone and I can beat you alone with just one hand.”

Jake Shields Recounted What Went Down Between Costa and Chimaev

Former UFC title challenger and Strikeforce middleweight champion Jake Shields was at the UFC Performance Institute training with Costa before the Chimaev incident. That’s what he told MMA Junkie in an interview after the fact.

And according to Shields, Chimaev was the instigator of the incident and the retired fighter was ready to act as backup for Costa.

“I was there this morning working out with Paulo Costa, going over some techniques and just drilling, and all of a sudden Khamzat starts yelling at us and cussing Paulo like, ‘Well, you want to fight?’” Shields said. “We look over, and it’s him and like 10 dudes.

“So Paulo jumps up and starts talking s***. I run over to back up Paulo because I don’t know if they’re trying to jump him, right? There were a couple of guys, so I wasn’t sure if they were going to jump him. There were a couple of guys that we didn’t recognize.

“So we run over and start talking s*** and Khamzat keeps going, ‘Let’s fight now, let’s fight now,’ but as he’s saying that he’s walking down the stairs. It seemed like it was kind of more of an act for the cameras than anything. I guess someone said afterward that he was scoping us out for 10 minutes. If he wanted to fight Paulo, he would’ve run in there and started swinging on him, not stood outside the cage and say, ‘Let’s fight right now. Let’s fight right now.’

“It seemed kind of a weak thing. I guess that’s why he was upset because Paulo called him a fake gangster, and that was a perfect example of him being a fake gangster.”