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Israel Adesanya is often regarded as one of the most dominant middleweights in the modern era. He recently took a trip down memory lane to revisit his stupefying triumph over Paulo Costa on his Instagram story. What's more, he also posted a montage of his best fights.
While all his notoriety could easily go to someone's head, 'The Last Stylebender' has done a decent job of keeping his feet on the ground. But if his most recent throwback montage is to be believed, it's not as easy as it would seem.
Israel Adesanya harked back to some of the best moments of his career in the middleweight division. Featuring victories over Paulo Costa, Robert Whittaker and Kelvin Gastelum, Israel Adesanya shone a light on his striking prowess.
"I had to remind myself. So hard being humble. Almost forgot who I am," wrote Israel Adesanya.
Paulo Costa gets a special mention from Israel Adesanya
Paulo Costa and Israel Adesanya share one of the most intense rivalries in the UFC. Neither fighter is able to keep the other person's name out of their mouths. The Nigerian-New Zealander recently exhibited that with a series of posts on his Instagram story.
He posted a handful of pictures from his fight against Paulo Costa back in September 2020. The fight saw Israel Adesanya pick up a KO/TKO win in the second round.
![Israel Adesanya (top) & Paulo Costa (bottom) [Image Credits- @styelbender on Instagram]](https://staticg.sportskeeda.com/editor/2021/09/95e87-16316237413020-800.jpg)
The two fighters truly marketed the fight as one of the biggest bad blood fights in the UFC at the time. Coming in with unbeaten records, both fighters had a lot on the line.
While Costa was touted as Adesanya's undoing, the performance that he put in was rather substandard. The fact that he went on to make some questionable excuses for his loss only made things worse.
However, he has an opportunity to redeem himself. On a collision course with Marvin Vettori, Paulo Costa has a chance to enter UFC middleweight relevance yet again. Will he be able to show up big this time around?
