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Many thought Paulo Costa had a good chance of defeating Israel Adesanya; especially because of his size and incredible power. However, that did not happen. At UFC 253, Adesanya defeated Costa via TKO and not only defeated his title, but also his undefeated streak as a professional MMA athlete.

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Adesanya recently appeared on Mike Tyson’s podcast, ‘Hotboxin’ with Mike Tyson, where the fighter also spoke about his fight with Costa and his love for dancing.

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The fighter discussed how athletes from other sports do not really express themselves. He gave the example of New Zealand’s Rugby team. In contrast, ‘The Last Stylebender’ loves to express his thoughts.

He said, “I want to express myself even, even you see, after that fight, I f***ed up Costa. Double-tap him, I’m cracking m windmills on the ground. That’s me expressing myself. And some people might not like it but I’m like you’re going to watch it anyway.”

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“I wasn’t hurting anyone. I was literally just dancing because I just knocked out a guy that was talking mad sh*t about me …”

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After defeating Costa, ‘Izzy’ went on to dance in the octagon even before the winner was formally announced. Meanwhile, Costa was still being treated by the cutman. The end of their bout, however, did not put an end to their rivalry. After all, Adesanya was Costa’s first professional MMA loss.

READ MORE- 5 Things We Didn’t Know About Israel Adesanya

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Unfortunately, the Brazilian was also defeated by Marvin Vettori later. Similarly, Adesanya too lost against Jan Blachowicz while fighting for the light heavyweight title.

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What’s next for UFC champion Israel Adesanya?

The middleweight champion faced Robert Whittaker at UFC 271. He won through a unanimous decision and thus, retained his title. The fighter has fought almost all of the highest-ranked athletes from his division except one. Hence, Jared Cannonier is next in line for the title fight.

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In a previous interview, Adesanya himself said that his next fight would be against Cannonier. ‘The Killa Gorilla’ is coming off two wins. Thus, seeing him and Adesanya fight to stay at the top would be interesting.

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Do you think Jared Cannonier might be the one to defeat Israel Adesanya? Let us know in the comments.

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Rohini Kottu

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Rohini Kottu is a Newsroom Editor at EssentiallySports, bringing years of expertise in sports journalism and editorial leadership. With many editorials under her byline, she has worked across combat divisions and is now a key part of the Newsroom team, shaping coverage across the site’s 14 category pages. Her editorial command lies in balancing sharp news judgment with compelling storytelling, ensuring every article resonates with sports fans while maintaining ES’s brand voice.

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