VIDEO: Paulo Costa and Khamzat Chimaev get in heated altercation at UFC PI
As he prepares for his PPV welterweight main event against Nate Diaz at UFC 279 this weekend, Khamzat Chimaev started his fight week off with quite the altercation. While training at the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas, Chimaev was in the gym area where middleweight Paulo Costa who is coming off a win over Luke Rockhold at UFC 278, was also training.
In video captured by The Mac Life, Chimaev confronted Paulo Costa about previously made comments that “The Eraser” made in regards to wanting to fight him, and the chaos began. While Chimaev has quickly rose to ascension in the welterweight division, he has also had a few fights in the middleweight division, which he was also victorious in.
At a time where the welterweight division may be on hold until the trilogy between champion Leon Edwards and former champion Kamaru Usman is completed, Chimaev has considered the possibility of jumping back up to the middleweight division and challenging for the title when the opportunity presents itself.
Middleweight champion Israel Adesanya has already defeated Paulo Costa and has run through most of the notable challengers at the top of the division, but is now scheduled to defend his belt against Alex Periera at UFC 281 in November. With former champion Robert Whittaker recently getting a win over Marvin Vettori and Costa picking up a win over former champion Luke Rockhold, there are two contenders eyeing another shot at the champion, or potentially Periera if he pulls off the upset.
First things first for Khamzat Chimaev, he’ll have to defeat Nate Diaz to put himself in line for an upcoming shot at the welterweight title, and if those plans don’t come to fruition sooner than later, he could look at a move to middleweight where he could be considered an instant contender if he could face a top-ranked opponent.
Take a look at the video above to see the altercation between Paulo Costa and Khamzat Chimaev.
