Booze and sports don’t go together and you’d think a professional athlete should know that.
Apparently, former UFC middleweight challenger Paulo Costa had to find out the hard way that drinking alcohol before competing in your biggest fight so far won’t be good for your health.
The Brazilian fighter has recently admitted that he drank a bottle of wine the night before UFC 253 in September 2020. Israel Adesanya defeated Costa via TKO in the second round, leaving no doubt who the better fighter was.
Now, five months later “Borrachinha ” said that he was a hangover by the time of the fight and fight fans are pretty damn right to jump on him for the excuses. Even if that’s the truth.
“I was kind of drunk (when) I fought, maybe, on hangover,” Costa said in Portuguese in a video on his YouTube channel. “I couldn’t sleep because of the (leg) cramps. Keep in mind that the fight happens at nine am [local time], we have to wake up at five to get ready, stretch, wrap the hands. The UFC told us to wake up at five in the morning to go to the arena to fight. I hadn’t slept until 2.30 am.
“It was my mistake and I don’t blame anyone else, it was something I chose [to do], but, in order to try to sleep, because I had to sleep since I was awake for 24 hours, I had wine, too much wine, a bottle (of wine) to try to blackout. I had a glass and didn’t work. Two glasses, it didn’t work. Half bottle didn’t work. I had it all.”
