UFC: Israel Adesanya Wants To Fight Paulo Costa In New Zealand
UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya is expected to defend his title against the number two ranked contender Paulo Costa, later this year. There were talks about them coaching the next season of The Ultimate Fighter. UFC president Dana White recently stated that he isn’t in a rush to make that fight, but it is definitely on the agenda.
Speaking to Newshub (transcript by The Mac Life) ‘The Last Stylebender’ targeted New Zealand as the best option for his title fight with ‘Borrachinha’.
“That’s a no brainer. 100 percent,” Adesanya said. “F*** yeah. I have to headline Spark Arena before my career is over, and to defend my title there against this inflated balloon animal, that’d be beautiful.
“It makes sense,” Adesanya continued. “If you want a crowd if you want things to go back to fans and have them enjoy the show and give them what they want live, there’s no better place to do it than New Zealand. We have a lot of talent in this gym and down under, that we can bring over and have them quarantine for as long as possible while they’re still training.
“We have the talent… we’ve got killers.”
Currently, New Zealand is one of the very few countries that are allowing fans to attend live shows, and Adesanya believes that Dana could be enticed by the possibility of bringing in gate money for the first time since UFC 248 in March, where ‘The Last Stylebender’ defended his title against Yoel Romero.
“He’s a smart man… I’m pretty sure they miss that gate money, so they’ll definitely want to bring it down to New Zealand,” he said. “I miss that gate money too. Don’t you like gate money, Dana? Merchandise money and then pay-per-view money all around the world?
“We’re one of the first in the western world to have crowds because we’ve dealt so well with this whole COVID-19 business,” Adesanya continued. “I was at the Blues game about three weeks ago. We’re going to have King in the Ring this weekend. If you want a crowd and things to go back to the way they used to be, New Zealand would be a good starting place.
“Dana, make it happen!”
Would you like to see Israel Adesanya defend his UFC middleweight title against Paulo Costa in New Zealand?
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