Paulo Costa's hilarious joke about Israel Adesanya pulling out of UFC 287 almost convinces fans

Paulo Costa recently lived up to his 'Meme God' title and almost fooled fans by faking breaking news about Israel Adesanya pulling out of his UFC 287 bout against Alex Pereira.

Adesanya is set to rematch his long-time rival Pereira on April 9 in a highly anticipated middleweight title clash. While fans eagerly await the fourth combat sports meeting between the two rivals, 'Borrachinha' saw the perfect opportunity to troll them hilariously.

Costa posted a tweet claiming 'The Last Stylebender' has pulled out of the fight with an absurd injury. While fans certainly saw the humor, some were fooled by the almost-genuine-looking poster.

One user stated his shock and reacted in the comments section with:

"Bruv, I thought this was actually legit at first."

One fan wrote:

"When you think it’s real. Wait a minute."

Another fan wrote:

"My boi, you got me good with this one hahaha, I was like wait a goddamn minute!"

One user tweeted:

"Paulo be killing me. I thought this was real for a minute."

Another user went along with the joke, saying:

"Likely not sudden. My guess is sustained slow damage."

One fan reacted with an image captioned:

"You almost got me Paulo."

Another fan wrote:

"My jaw dropped when I read it for the first time."

One fan posted Adesanya's viral clip from his Paulo Costa fight, saying:

"Footage of Adesanya when he got injured."

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UFC 287: Israel Adesanya on his rematch against Alex Pereira

Israel Adesanya believes his rematch against Alex Pereira at UFC 287 will be his last shot at redemption.

'The Last Stylebender' won the interim UFC middleweight title against Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 236 and unified the championship with a win against Robert Whittaker at UFC 243. The Nigerian-born Kiwi went on to defend his belt five times before facing his long-time rival Alex Pereira at UFC 281.

While it looked like Adesanya was on his way to another decision win, 'Poatan' caught him against the cage in the final round and landed a barrage of unanswered strikes that forced the referee to stop the contest.

This was the third time the hard-hitting Brazilian defeated Israel Adesanya in their combat sports careers, and they're set to run it back for the fourth time.

In a recent video uploaded to his YouTube channel, Israel Adesanya addressed the pressure on him going into the fight and claimed:

"This is kind of poetic, in a way. This is my last shot, and I'm gonna give it all I got."

Watch the full video below: