Paulo Costa thinks Khamzat Chimaev is not nearly as tough as he appears to be.

Earlier this week, Costa and Chimaev got into an altercation at the UFC PI in Las Vegas, that Costa posted to his YouTube channel. In the video, Costa is finishing a training session with Jake Shields, when Chimaev confronts him and the two exchange heated words before Chimaev’s team drags him away. Speaking to Full Send MMA, Costa gave his side of what happened.

“I don’t think he was actually there for fight,” Costa said. “I think he was just for show something for the cameras because we are training, just me, Jake Shields and [Costa’s girlfriend] Tamara. Three guys and he had there with him ten guys of his team. The door to the mat was open whole time and he was there, just to watch us. So if he would like to fight, why he didn’t jump in the mat and fight us? Maybe he was scared of Tamara, who was recording. Tamara is strong, man. Very tough. [Laughs]. Maybe this. I don’t know. I have no reasons why he didn’t jump on the mat.]

“He called my name, so I went there and said, ‘What do you want?’ He said, ‘Paulo, why’d you talk about me?’ I said, ‘Man, it doesn’t matter what I talked about you. I want to fight you. You want to fight me?’ He said, ‘No. I just want to know what you said about me.’ [I said] ‘I want to fight you, motherf*****!’ and he said, ‘Okay, let’s fight right now.’ I say, ‘Okay, come on.’ He say ‘No, you come here.’ Oh my God, ‘Okay. Let’s go there.’ When I went there, three of his team guys came and blocked the gate and Chimaev was like ‘Oh, hold me, hold me, hold me. Hold me, guys! Hold me! I will fight Paulo right now! Man, f***, he’s not a gangster. He’s a Gourmet Chechen gangster. He’s a fake gangster.”

Fortunately there is an easy way for Costa and Chimaev to settle their beef: they can fight. Though Chimaev is knocking on the door of a welterweight title shot, “Borz” has also competed at middleweight and recently said he was interested in fight for the 185-pound title, if a welterweight title shot was not forthcoming. But Costa believes Chimaev would pass on a fight with himself.

“I don’t think he wants that beef.” Costa said. “He knows he’s just used to bully short guys, small guys, when he saw me, he didn’t expect I act like that. ‘Okay, let’s go right now, let’s fight right now.’ So he froze. He didn’t expect that. He wasn’t real fearsome... I’m a big guy. I’m one of the biggest guys in the middleweight division and he cannot handle me. He wants to bully the small guys. I know this kind of bully, I know very well. He just wants to bully short guys. He was gifted when he fought Burns. He don’t have any chance against me.”

While Chimaev would dispute Costa’s reasoning, it appears that “Borrachinha” is right about Chimaev not being interested in a fight. At UFC 279 media day, Chimaev dismissed the idea of facing Costa, saying “I don’t fight with that guy. Somebody already f***** him up in the ass,” referencing Costa’s loss to Israel Adesanya. Costa then fired back on social media, again taking shots at Chimaev’s “gangster” image.

“I saw fear in his eyes when I faced him and now he’s scared as f***,” Costa said. “Because you’re scared, scared as f***. I didn’t expect nothing different. What kind of gangster is that?... Now he’s avoiding the fight everybody wants to see.”

Before any sort of Costa and Chimaev fight can happen though, Chimaev has business to take care of. He faces Nate Diaz this Saturday in the main event of UFC 279.

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VIDEO STEW

The MMA Hour.

UFC 279 promo from BT Sport.

Embedded.

A cartoon version of the altercation.

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No Bets Barred. Breaking down the best bets for UFC 279.

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Michael Chandler ready to go.

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FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Thanks for reading! See y’all tomorrow.

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EXIT POLL

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