Costa told: Swallow your ego

Israel Adesanya has some advice for Paulo Costa after the Brazilian offered a bizarre excuse for his loss last year: ‘‘swallow your ego’’ and move on.

The UFC middleweight champion was left rather amused at hearing that Costa blamed his second-round TKO defeat to Adesanya in September on being hungover.

In a recent Youtube video, Costa claimed he had drunk toomuch wine in a bid to get some sleep on the eve of the fight in Abu Dhabi only to end up feeling ‘‘sleepy and yawning’’ during the clash.

‘‘That’s just funny,’’ Adesanya toldmma Junkie. ‘‘There’s certain things I’ve done before some of my fights in the past where I learnt my mistakes, but I went in and got my job done. Some people aren’t cut out for that lifestyle.’’

Adesanya and Costa were embroiled in a bitter buildup to their clash at UFC 253 before the Kiwi had the last laugh inside the octagon, handing ‘The Eraser’ the first loss of his career in dominant fashion.

Costa is desperate for a rematch and will attempt to bounce back against former champion Robert Whittaker in April.

Adesanya said if Costa was really serious about getting another shot at the middleweight crown, he was going about it the wrong way.

‘‘The fact that he keeps trying to make all these excuses, it’s only going to do him worse in the long run. He’smaking excuses because his ego can’t handle the fact that ‘The Skinny Clown’ whooped his a.. badly then double-tapped him twice,’’ Adesanya said.

‘‘Just swallow your ego. Get back to the drawing board and reassess your whole game. ’’