Paulo Costa found a killer line and bolted it onto a bad argument. “Real fighters don’t need an entourage” belongs on a T-shirt at every merch booth in America. Stretching it into a verdict on two entire regions belongs in the recycling bin.
Start with what actually happened. On Wednesday in Abu Dhabi, Usman Nurmagomedov walked up to Merab Dvalishvili while the former UFC bantamweight champion was in the middle of an interview and slapped him a split second after arriving, according to MMA Fighting. Then members of Usman’s team, including his brother Umar Nurmagomedov, piled in on Dvalishvili and the one friend standing beside him. RAF security scrambled for a few chaotic moments before the bodies got separated, all of it ahead of RAF Abu Dhabi on Saturday.
Costa fired off a reaction on X that same day, writing that he had seen this before and calling out guys “jumping in group against 1 or 2 guys.” Then came the video, flagged by Championship Rounds on X, where Costa widened the blast radius and accused Dagestani and Chechen fighters of “always showing up in packs, never alone.”
View post on X
On the Lobby, Costa Is Dead Right
I’ll defend the narrow version of his point all day. Usman might be the hottest free agent in combat sports, and he spent Wednesday turning himself into the guy every fan wants to see get flattened. That’s a villain arc I’d normally pay for. The problem is how he got there.
Watch the breakdown Ariel Helwani posted of Alex Hernandez and Brandon Royval reacting to the footage. One of them points out that the camera was already out and that “They had a huddle, discussed it, and then walked over.” That’s a planned ambush on a man holding a microphone, and Hernandez and Royval called it “the most lame, deplorable shit of all time.” Ricky Simón called it “a dirty move.” Gilbert Burns posted that “we should be the example not the other way around!!” Alan Jouban, bless him, skipped the outrage and asked Dana White to sign Dvalishvili’s friend, which is the best scouting report anyone filed this week.
So yes. Two guys against a crew is gutless, and Costa has every right to say so loudly, in his own very Borrachinha way.
Then He Lost Me
The video doesn’t name Usman. It doesn’t name Umar. It names regions. That move takes the blame off the specific people who threw hands in a hotel lobby and spreads it across millions of people who were nowhere near Abu Dhabi. Sean Strickland went even further on X the same day, framing it around Muslim fighters in groups. Costa’s version is the geography edition of the same lazy shortcut, and lazy shortcuts are how you lose an argument you were winning.
The headcount in that lobby didn’t make it dirty either. Every fighter travels with coaches, training partners and friends. Dvalishvili had a buddy right next to him, and the internet is currently building that guy a statue. What made Wednesday ugly was a sucker slap on someone mid-interview followed by a crew rushing in. Pin that on the people who did it. They’re easy to find. There’s video.
I hate manufactured beef that evaporates at the face-off. This is the opposite problem: very real beef, aimed so wide it hits a whole lot of people who have nothing to do with it. Costa had a clean shot at a real villain and sprayed the room instead.
Want to Prove the Slogan? Fight
The funniest wrinkle sits in Costa’s own division. He’s ranked No. 5 at light heavyweight in the latest Meta Rankings, and the man at No. 2, Magomed Ankalaev, spent Monday on X complaining that nobody in the top five will fight him. His explanation for Costa was four words long: “Costa wants $10 million.”
Heavy reported that Costa remains in a contract dispute with the UFC because he wants extra pay for a five-round main event, and the UFC hasn’t budged. Honestly, I get the money fight. Promotions love treating fans like ATMs and fighters like coupons, so a guy holding out for headliner money doesn’t bother me. But you can’t post a video about real fighters showing up alone and then keep a callout sitting on read.
Heavy’s sources also said the UFC is targeting Ankalaev to headline UFC Dallas on Jan. 16 at American Airlines Center, with the promotion trying to land Dominick Reyes. Ankalaev says Reyes is hurt and Khalil Rountree Jr. isn’t ready. That leaves a main event without a confirmed opponent, one cage, and zero room for an entourage. Costa wrote the slogan. The cheapest way to make it true is to sign the contract.
