Saturday saw Israel Adesanya successfully defend his UFC title against challenger Paulo Costa. Before the match, Costa talked about Israel’s supposed lack of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu skills in comparison to his own. This comes after Costa claimed Adesanya was a white belt, whereas he was a black belt in BJJ.
Things got heated at the weigh-ins when the two faced off. Here, Costa entered wearing his BJJ black belt around his waist and got a white belt out of his pocket – throwing it in the face of Adesanya.
For those out of the loop, Adesanya is technically a blue belt and received his belt at ATOS Auckland in New Zealand under the legendary Andre Galvao. This grading made Adesanya tearful at the time, so it clearly meant a lot to him. It should also be added that sometimes, MMA fighters get promoted in BJJ far slower than BJJ purists. For instance, Jon Jones is currently a purple belt and was a blue belt when he became UFC champion. Even veteran Michael Bisping is still only a brown belt after years of grappling. In short, this isn’t too uncommon in the world of MMA, even though the fighter’s skills will be far beyond their colour of their belt.
Anyway, it was Adesanya who had the last laugh as he comprehensively beat Costa and ended it with a ground and pound. Not only this, but he also pretended to hump Costa at one point which proved his domination against the Brazilian. He topped off the war of words after the fight with a picture of him mounting Costa which said “Mounted by a white beltch Oss” and later put up a picture wearing a white belt with the caption “White belt for life”. With this said and done, it looks like Adesanya has had the last laugh and his BJJ cannot be questioned at this point.
