I was kind of drunk says Costa

UFC star Paulo Costa admits he ‘‘drank too much wine’’ and had a ‘‘hangover’’’ when thrashed by Israel Adesanya in their world middleweight title fight last September.

Adesanya received just over $1.053m for his stunning title defence when he made quick work of the Brazilian with a second round UFC 253 victory at Fight Island in Abu Dhabi.

Now, Costa has claimed he had drunk too much wine in a bid to get some sleep on the eve of the fight, but he felt ‘‘sleepy and yawning’’ during the clash.

The 29-year-old, who will fight Australiabased Kiwi fighter Robert Whittaker next month, made the claims in a video on his YouTube channel last weekend.

‘‘I was kind of drunk [when] I fought, maybe, on hangover,’’ Costa said in Portuguese, according to a translation on the MMAFighting.com website.

‘‘I couldn’t sleep because of the [leg] cramps. Keep in mind that the fight happens at 9am [local time], we have to wake up at 5 to get ready, stretch, wrap the hands. The UFC told us to wake up at 5 in the morning to go to the arena to fight. I hadn’t slept until 2:30.

‘‘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 black out. I had a glass and didn’t work. Two glasses, it didn’t work. Half bottle, didn’t work. I had it all.’’

Costa, who had a 13-0 record before facing Adesanya, had claimed on his YouTube channel last November that he shouldn’t have fought in September, but ‘‘should have postponed it for the next weekend or more’’.