Paulo Costa breaks silence on loss to Israel Adesanya at UFC 253, vows to win UFC belt ‘whether you like it or not’

Paulo Costa is not going anywhere.

“Borrachinha” took on social media Monday to address his second-round TKO loss to UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya at UFC 253, which went down Saturday night on Fight Island, and assured he’s still pursuing the 185-pound belt.

“I’m relaxed because I know what I can do here in this division,” Costa said in English in a brief Instagram stories video. “I will still (fight at) 185 to fight him again. I will fight him again sooner and he knows. I will bring back with all my weapons, ok?”

In a series of videos in Portuguese, Costa elaborated more on the loss and the critics he’s received after coming up short in his attempt to dethrone “The Last Stylebender” in Abu Dhabi.

“Thank you all the haters too for the messages,” Costa said. “To my friends, and also those who aren’t — but especially my friends and those who cheer for me — don’t worry, I’m fine. I already know what happened, I know what was done wrong, and it won’t happen next time. I won’t keep waiting. Some things happens, I had some problems but I won’t give any excuses, ok? The fight is over, he won, but I guarantee you that the next one will be different. Next time I meet him, if he continues the champion, it will be different.

“There are a lot of people saying things they don’t know about on YouTube. Don’t worry, I know exactly what happened. We spoke with the whole team, we know what happened. Only we know what happened. Don’t worry, we’re focused here. We’ll bring the belt to Brazil. It will happen, whether you like it or not. Nothing changes. Only the ‘when’ changes. It would be now, but will be soon.”

Costa, who was 5-0 in the UFC with wins over Garreth McLellan, Oluwale Bamgbose, Johny Hendricks, Uriah Hall and Yoel Romero, dropped to 13-1 as a professional with the stoppage defeat in Abu Dhabi.