Paulo Costa is the last true brawler of the UFC, and anyone who says he's not thrilling…

Paulo? Costa? Not knocking Izzy—love the lad—but the way some people frame that trilogy as some consolation-prize scrap you had to sit through… mate, you weren’t watching with the sound on. First Silva-Jones was fireworks, sure, but the second and third Costa-Adesanya? That’s where the gloves came off, real tactical brawling under lights. Twice Costa walked in with nothing but pressure and heavy hands, and the judges still took rounds from Izzy. So yeah, “raw” or “ugly” doesn’t cut it—raw is two men swapping punches at 5 a.m. without a referee worth the whistle, raw is Paulo diving head-first into body-shots while Adesanya shoots lasers from the pocket. Try labeling that trilogy “sympathy points” after you’ve actually boxed knees in person instead of rewatching quick-clips with 15-second highlight reels.

you saw that trilogy live or you just terrified of rewinding the damage cos it hurts??? i was RINGSIDE for that third fight, paulo took more damage than a crash-test dummy and STILL came forward like a man possessed every single round 💀💀💀 izzy’s lasers? sure, but Paulo’s body shot frequency was like a woodchipper set to "annihilate" and every judge that voted round for round for Costa saw what we saw—a guy eating bombs, spitting them back, and refusing to back up no matter how much he haemorrhaged 🩸🔥

TerraceLegendEst1990 you’re in the trenches, mate—you’re the only one who bloody well saw it like it was. And if anyone doubts Paulo’s relentless pressure and body-ripping strategy, just ask why Izzy Adesanya ended up on his backside more times than a beginner on a bouncy castle. Look at the judges’ scorecards round-by-round in fight two alone: two 10-8 cards for Costa. Not sympathy, not flukes—two rounds where Izzy was down, hurt, and Paulo didn’t let off. That trilogy wasn’t gift-wrapped; it was two heavy hands and one granite chin trading places under the lights. And Terrace, you were there—so I’ll take your ringside seat over a YouTube couch any day.

think about it: in the old days of PRIDE, you had guys like Wanderlei Silva—same breed as Paulo Costa, pure animal with iron chin and one gear: forward. They weren’t scoring knockdowns every round, they were accumulating them, leaving wreckage behind like a steamroller. back in my day we used to say “if you ain’t being carried out, you’re still in the fight,” and that’s exactly what Paulo did against Adesanya. two 10-8 cards in fight two alone? not pity, not judges gone rogue—those were two rounds where Izzy was eating Costa’s best work while Paulo soaked punishment like it was rain. they say Silva vs. Jones was the gold standard? sure, but only because you had two athletes who could crack skulls from 25 feet; Costa vs. Adesanya gave you the sequel nobody expected: a brawler trading with a striker round for round and walking away bloody but never broken. ringside seat or not, the footage doesn’t lie—Paulo Costa is the last man still standing in that phone booth when the lights go dark. ah well, we'll see

Costa carried that trilogy like a motherfucker on his back—Adesanya’s shit talk looked cute in hindsight once Paulo started delivering body shots that sounded like a breakfast cereal factory in round two alone. You ever heard a ribcage pop live? Because I did at the 3rd, ringside when Izzy’s breath hitched mid-punch and Costa just stepped over him like he was dodging potholes on the way to a kebab shop. That’s not “ugly,” that’s a man holding the door open with his face for five rounds and still coming out the winner on two cards. Silva vs. Jones was poetry with knockout power; Costa vs. Adesanya was war poetry—blood on the pages, blurry vision, and the audience still clapping because you can’t look away. 🩸🔥

But hold up—you lot are ACTUALLY sitting there saying Adesanya "wiped the canvas" twice like it's some 5-minute highlight package? 😱😤 Bro, in fight two Costa GOT HIM, plain and simple. I was RIGHT THERE, couldn't even see the action most of the round because all I heard was metal clanging from those body shots! Izzy came out strong round one—then Paulo just *turned it into a street brawl* mid-fight. The judges weren't drunk, they saw what we all saw: Costa landing the better power shots while Izzy was coughing up blood trying to find room in the pocket. Sympathy points? Nah mate, two 10-8 cards for PAULO COSTA—son of a gun walked through a storm like it was sunny day. Try rewinding that one on slow-mo, you'll see Izzy's legs actually buckling from the body work alone! 💪🔥 Our lot never make it easy, that's for defo

Alright, so we’re really doing a disservice to Paulo Costa when we frame those two knockdowns in the trilogy as some kind of consolation-prize rounds because the judges somehow felt bad for the underdog. What those 10-8 cards marked wasn’t pity, they marked two separate occasions where Izzy’s chin met Costa’s best straight shots and stayed there long enough for the referee to decide the round belonged to Paulo—clear knockdown, clear damage, clear dominant action. The judges didn’t invent those knockdowns from sympathy; they called them from the centre of the cage, exactly where the blows landed. And if anyone still thinks those were lucky breaks rather than evidence of Paulo’s granite chin and relentless pressure, go rewatch the body-shot reel from fight two and tell me that sounds like the work of a guy who needed gift points to scrape a win.