Israel Adesanya explains his homoerotic celebration of Paulo Costa victory to Mike Tyson

Ezra Samuel

The reigning UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya recently shared insight into what made him perform the infamous celebration after he beat Paulo Costa back in 2020.

Israel Adesanya silenced a lot of people at UFC 253. At the time, Paulo Costa was still undefeated and notorious for his stand and bang approach to bouts. In addition to the bravado, Costa also had impressive striking power, so much so that many UFC fans believed he would stop Adesanya’s hype train. Unfortunately, ‘The Last Stylebender’ got the better of him and won the fight via knockout in the second round after thoroughly battering Costa’s legs in the first.

After the fact, Adesanya infamously humped costa and subsquently did a breakdance in the octagon right next to Costa who was still sitting on the canvas. He kept celebrating and dancing with his team outside of the octagon.

Recently, Adesanya appeared on Mike Tyson’s podcast ‘hotboxin’ as a guest. The 32-year-old recalled the moment:

“I want to express myself even, even you see, after that fight, I f***ed up Costa. Double-tap him, I’m cracking my 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.” Adesanya said.

He also confirmed that he wasn’t taunting Paulo Costa. As he can be seen dancing in almost every of his victories.

“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.” Adesanya added.

Luckily for Adesanya, Iron Mike didn’t think to ask him about his infamous pretend peeing in the cage celebration.

Israel Adesanya is still undefeated in the middleweight division. Since snatching the title from Robert Whittaker in 2019, Adesanya has defended the title 4 times. However, he tasted his one and only loss when he made his light heavyweight debut against Jan Blachowicz. As for his next opponent, middleweight top-rank contender Jared Cannonier will likely be the next challenger.