Paulo Costa says Yoel Romero used ‘dirty tactics’ in UFC 241 fight
Paulo Costa got his hand raised over Yoel Romero at UFC 241 but he was not happy with how the Cuban fought.
There, Paulo Costa said Romero was using dirty tactics in the fight. Like when he pointed to the ground thinking his mouthguard was out.
“He’s a nice guy, but he’s dirty,” Costa said on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show. “In the first round, when I make a hook in his face, he went down then got up very quickly. I say man I will knock him out in the first round because he feel my punch, my first punch, and I started hunting him in the Octagon. And when I close to knock him out, he point on something, anywhere, I don’t know. Like look there Paulo, and I lose concentration, because he point something, maybe his mouthpiece fall.
“And I’m not a dirty guy. I try to fight clean and when he point something, like maybe a mouth piece down. I think man, maybe something happened. So I lose my concentration, and he punched my face. But he missed my face and hit my neck, and I lose my balance, and I fall, so this is one thing.”
Not only that, but Paulo Costa says when Yoel Romero went down on a groin strike, the strike never landed there. Instead, it landed in his stomach but the Brazilian says the Cuban needed a break.
“The second thing, my knee not hit his balls,” Costa said. “My knee hit his stomach, and he said, ‘Oh, you hit my balls,’ and he jumped back. The referee (said) stop, stop. I don’t know him deep, but he’s a nice guy, he looks like a nice guy, but his kind of fight is not clean.”
Ultimately, Paulo Costa got the win but he still is not happy with the dirty tactics Yoel Romero used.
