“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. He was at the mat all of the time, and was just there to observe us. If he wanted to fight, then why didn’t he jump on the mat and face us? Perhaps he was afraid of Tamara who was recording. Tamara is strong, man. Very tough. [Laughs]. This could be it. It’s possible. 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. I want to fight you.’ He replied, “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 get there. Three of his guys arrived and blocked the gate. Chimaev said, “Oh, hold my hand, hold on, please.” Hold me, guys! Hold me! Right now, I’m going to fight Paulo! He’s not a gangster, f ***,. He’s a Gourmet Chechen gangster. He is 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. Costa is confident that Chimaev will accept a fight against himself.

” I don’t believe he needs that beef,” Costa stated. “He knows he’s just used to bully short guys, small guys, when he saw me, he didn’t expect I act like that. He said, “Okay, let us go now, let’s fight now.” And he stopped. He didn’t expect that. He was not really fearsome… I am a large guy. I’m one of the biggest guys in the middleweight division and he cannot handle me. He is determined to intimidate the smaller guys. I know this kind of bully, I know very well. He just wants to bully short guys. When he faced Burns, he was exceptionally gifted. He don’t have any chance against me.”

While Chimaev might disagree with Costa’s argument, it seems that Borrachinha is correct about Chimaev being uninterested in a fight. At UFC 279 media day, Chimaev dismissed the idea of facing Costa, saying “I don’t fight with that guy. Someone already f ***** him in the ass,” refers to Costa’s defeat to Israel Adesanya. Costa retaliated on social media by taking another swipe at Chimaev’s “gangster” image.