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Brendan Schaub has criticized Brazilian UFC middleweight star Paulo Costa for praising Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began on February 24th, 2022. This escalated the Russo-Ukrainian conflict that has been underway since 2014 and has caused a full-fledged war between Russia and Ukraine. Vladimir Putin, the long-reigning president of Russia, has been condemned by many for his decision to invade Ukraine.
Alternatively, certain sections of the socio-political realm have voiced their support for Putin. They’ve instead condemned NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), the US, and Western European countries like France for inciting the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Paulo Costa recently posted a tweet praising Putin for his military background, whilst criticizing US president Joe Biden and French president Emmanuel Macron. Costa's tweet was later deleted, but he has now tweeted something similar, as displayed below.
Former UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub addressed Costa's original tweet on The Schaub Show and stated:
“For some of these MMA guys, when they talk about politics, I wish you didn’t. If you knew the horrible sh**, clearly, just turn on the news. They’re killing pregnant women, innocent children; murdering kids, bombing daycare centers, bombing hospitals…You don’t know what the f**k you’re talking about. You have no clue, dude. To tweet something like that, you’ve gotta be a g***amn moron. You're a fu***** moron.”
“But again, these guys, you wanna talk about, like, you have any idea what you’re talking about? Co-signing Putin. Just pick up a goddamn book, man. Watch the news. You can’t co-sign this f****** devil. Talking about a really bad dude; responsible for thousands of lives, man. You have millions of people looking for safety and refuge here.”
Schaub believes the UFC asked Costa to delete the tweet, as they’d probably face backlash in regards to booking him a fight if he continues to publicly support Vladimir Putin.
Watch Schaub’s response to Costa’s comments regarding Vladimir Putin in the video below:
Daniel Cormier on Luke Rockhold’s call-out of Paulo Costa
Former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold has been lobbying to fight Paulo Costa in June. Daniel Cormier, alongside whom Rockhold trained for several years at the American Kickboxing Academy (AKA), picked Rockhold to win this potential matchup but acknowledged the danger Costa poses.
On ESPN MMA’s DC & RC Show, Cormier discussed the possible Rockhold-Costa matchup and said:
"I don't quite understand why he (Rockhold) wants that fight so bad…Is it a winnable fight? Absolutely. But is there a lot of danger in that fight? Absolutely. We've seen Paulo Costa at his best. And even when we've seen him lose his last fight at 205, he still looked pretty good."
