How did Israel Adesanya respond to Paulo Costa trolling him after UFC 281 loss?

After Israel Adesanya's loss to Alex Pereira at UFC 281, Paulo Costa trolled the former champ in a series of tweets. In an appearance on the Flagrant 2 podcast with Andrew Schulz, Adesanya responded to Costa with a hilarious comeback but also tipped his hat to the Brazilian fighter for making strides in his career.

Following Adesanya's loss, Paulo Costa put out the following tweet.

'Borrachinha' followed it up with another tweet congratulating Alex Pereira for his win and then posted the following:

On the Flagrant 2 podcast, Israel Adesanya said that he enjoyed Paulo Costa's hilarious Twitter activity, and responded to the Brazilian mocking him with the following:

"He [Costa] said: 'Give me my white belt back.' I'm like bro, I could give you your a** virginity back. You can't take that s**t. You can't get unf****d."

After a round of laughter, Adesanya followed up by saying that he likes Costa and appreciates that the Brazilian fighter is taking the trouble to learn English:

"But I like him. If we had to fight again, I'd still whoop his a**. I think he's really funny. His whole schtick with USADA - the 'secret juice'. And also, kudos to him as well for learning English. A lot of these fighters - they don't get as big as they need to be because they don't learn English, and they don't promote themselves and don't get to that level they need to get at. But he's done that and he's doing the work so, shout out to Costa!"

Skip to 58:42 for Adesanya's response to Costa:

Israel Adesanya and Paulo Costa had an infamous clash at UFC 253 where the former champ handed the Brazilian his first professional loss via a second-round TKO. The build-up to their fight was quite heated on both sides, with Costa trolling Adesanya regarding his grappling skills.

Israel Adesanya dominated the fight and finished Paulo Costa via TKO in the second round. It was what Adesanya did immediately after the fight ended that made Costa furious.

Watch the end of the Adesanya-Costa fight below:

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What's next for Israel Adesanya?

As of now, Israel Adesanya is on medical suspension for 60 days. The Nigerian-born Kiwi fighter suffered a fifth-round TKO loss to longtime rival Alex Pereira at UFC 281. Since his was a knockout loss, the NYSAC handed him a 60-day rest period. Pereira was handed a medical suspension of 30 days.

Israel Adesanya is looking to rematch Pereira sometime next year. On the aforementioned podcast, he said that he will fight the newly crowned Brazilian champ until he beats him. While Pereira believes that Adesanya will not want an immediate rematch, 'The Last Stylebender' says otherwise:

"He doesn't know me. I will fight you until I beat you. I don't give a f**k, I will be 60 [years old]. I will come to your favela, I'll knock on your f*****g door with my walking stick and be like, 'Yo, you and me, right now!'"