Trainer Has ‘No Doubt’ Khamzat Chimaev Would Accept Fight with Paulo Costa

The vídeo of the altercation between Paulo Costa and Khamzat Chimaev posted on Costa´s YouTube channel earlier this week led to mixed reactions in the MMA community.

Some fans thought it was theater created by both teams in order to make a potential matchup for UFC 283 in Rio de Janeiro, while others thought the conflict was real since it would make no sense for Chimaev to fight Costa in Brazil when he’s already so close to the welterweight title.

Chimaev’s coach, Alan “Finfou” Nascimento, told Sherdog.com that the altercation was real. The black belt added that the bad blood began when Costa published a video on social media cheering on Nate Diaz while badmouthing Chimaev.

"Khamzat didn’t like the things he said about him and when we arrived at [the UFC Performance Institute], ‘Borrachinha’ was there working with Diaz’s coach, Jake Shields, in the same area,” Nascimento said. “Khamzat immediately wanted to go there to talk to him, but I told him to cool off since we were in the fight week. He got mad because he never disrespected any opponent and he couldn't understand ‘Borrachinha’ talking trash about him.”

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According to Nascimento, Chimaev later called Borrachinha, who came with Shields and his fiancee who was filming the whole situation. That’s when the discussion started.

“‘Borrachinha’ wanted to ride the momentum of someone else. He can see that Chimaev is on the rise, that the fight with Nate Diaz is having a great impact and he wanted to capitalize on the situation,” Nascimento said. “In Brazil, we don't have this trash talk way. In our country and also in Chimaev’s, we have to be very careful with what you say, because it has consequences and it is often not good, as we could see in the fight between Conor and Khabib. I totally condemn that kind of attitude. That's not in the roots of Brazilian vale tudo, jiu-jitsu and MMA.”

Still, Nascimento recognizes that that possibility of a fight between Costa and Chimaev would be welcomed by the Chechen if he defeats Diaz at UFC 279.

“Khamzat loves challenges. I have no doubt he would accept that fight, if UFC likes that possibility,” Nascimento said. “Since the UFC has to make the trilogy between Usman and Edwards, and he was already planning to have his next fight in middleweight, a top ranked guy like ‘Borrachinha’ would be a great challenge to get him close to another belt dispute. And for all the trash talk ‘Borrachinha’ is doing, I would say that the fans would be behind us. But everything would depend on what the UFC wants.”