Khamzat Chimaev and Paulo Costa involved in altercation ahead of UFC 279

Costa was training at the UFC Performance Institute when he was confronted by an agitated Chimaev, who faces Nate Diaz this Saturday

Khamzat Chimaev and Paulo Costa were involved in an altercation at the UFC Performance Institute this week, ahead of Chimaev’s UFC 279 clash with Nate Diaz this weekend.

Chimaev is scheduled to face fellow welterweight Diaz in the main event of UFC 279 on Saturday (10 September), while middleweight Costa fought Luke Rockhold at UFC 278 last month, beating the former champion via decision.

UFC 279 will take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, where the UFC Performance Institute is located. It was there that Chimaev, who has also competed at middleweight in the UFC, confronted Costa this week as the Brazilian was training.

Footage captured by Blockasset and posted on Tuesday (6 September) shows Chimaev at the Performance Institute with a number of his entourage, the Russian-born Swede shouting at Costa, who is seen across the room training in a scaled-down Octagon.

“Did you say you wanna f*** me up?” Chimaev, 28, can be heard shouting at Costa, 31.

“You want to fight me? Okay, let’s go,” Costa replies. “You Brazilian p***y,” Chimaev then says as members of his own team hold him back.

The clip then cuts to Chimaev leaving the room and saying to the camera: “When you come, they become chickens, and he [acts] like he doesn’t see me. I stay right there and he doesn’t come and f*** me up. He said he wanted to f*** me up.”

Chimaev is 11-0 as a professional mixed martial arts, having won his first 10 fights via stoppage before outpointing former UFC welterweight title challenger Gilbert Burns in a brutal bout this April.

Meanwhile, Costa is 14-2 as a pro, having entered a 2020 title fight with Israel Adesanya unbeaten, before losing to the UFC middleweight champion via TKO and losing to Marvin Vettori on points in his next outing.

Costa was then a unanimous-decision winner against Rockhold in a wild contest last month as he got back to winning ways.