Paulo Costa suffered the first setback of his professional career Saturday when he lost to Israel Adesanya at UFC 253. After promising to end Adesanya’s (20-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) middleweight title reign in the headlining bout at Flash Forum at Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, Costa (13-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC) suffered a lopsided second-round TKO defeat that spelled the end of his perfect record. Although it was a disappointing result in the biggest moment of his career, Costa took the loss against his heated rival with humility, at least according to his first post-fight public comments. The Brazilian posted on social media Sunday and promised to be better next time (via Twitter ): I will back stronger , very soon ! Thank you all pic.twitter.com/nzYwpf7NEg — Paulo Costa ( Borrachinha ) (@BorrachinhaMMA) September 27, 2020 Many, including UFC president Dana White, were puzzled by Costa’s game plan for the fight