Things have clearly reached a boiling point between Paulo Costa and Khamzat Chimaev. Things have turned disrespectful at this point. In a fight conference Costa went off of Chimaev for sliding into his girlfriend DM’s.
During the UFC 318 media day, Costa (14-4 MMA, 6-4 UFC) revealed that what was once a war of words has now become personal after Chimaev (14-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) allegedly sent direct messages to Costa’s girlfriend, speaking negatively about him. For Costa, that crossed a line.
#UFC318's Paulo Costa says "coward" Khamzat Chimaev sent "nasty" DMs to his girlfriend.
"This is totally personal. I feel angry just to hear his name." pic.twitter.com/1hIOJjuVAs
— MMA Junkie (@MMAJunkie) July 16, 2025
“I want to fight him very badly,” Costa said at the UFC 318 media day. “I want to hurt him. It doesn’t matter if he won the fight or not, it doesn’t matter. We need to fight. He talked very bad things about me to my girl on Instagram DM’s. This is totally personal. I feel angry just to hear his name, so we need to fight. I’m going to do my best Saturday, if God gives me the victory because he controls everything, but I’m pretty sure I’ll get the victory and I’ll call his name. It doesn’t matter if he wins or not. This fight will only not happen if he retires.”
Costa needs to stay focused and not get so distracted in the task that’s ahead of him in Roman Kopylov . He needs to remain focused and put on a nice performance to be able to get to Chimaev. Remaining focused is key as he’s detailing Chimaev messages.
Dirty things,” Costa said. “Like, ‘You should look for a better man.’ Something like that, you know. Dirty things, dirty things. These are not things a real man, a confident man, ought to do. Why he messaged her? Why he didn’t message me? Coward. He is a coward.”
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