"Who the f**k is Merab" - Paulo Costa shares hilarious story about "stealing" Merab Dvalishvili's food boxes from UFC performance institute

UFC middleweight Paulo Costa recently revealed that he was guilty of stealing food from fellow fighter Merab Dvalishvili.

In a post on X, Costa mentioned that he misses the "Merab food" at the UFC's Performance Institute.

"What I miss most about Las Vegas is the Merab food at UFC PI that I usually steal [smiling face with tear emoji] rice and shrimps is so tasteful"

Upon further questioning by fans, 'Borrachinha' clarified that the Performance Institute provides athletes with customized meal boxes. However, Costa always opted for Dvalishvili's box and admitted to not knowing who the UFC bantamweight contender was earlier.

His subsequent post read:

"Ufc pi make boxes and name it for every athlete. I always gets “Merab” food box cause at that time I was asking who ta f**k is Merab. I real didn’t know an the food was good"

Check out Paulo Costa's posts below:

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Robert Whittaker outlines his approach against Paulo Costa at UFC 298

Paulo Costa is set to take on former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker in the co-main event of UFC 298.

Whittaker previewed the matchup in an interview with MiddleEasy by lauding Costa's strength and his skills. He also highlighted the importance of restricting Costa's space and not allowing any respite.

“Paulo’s strong, man – he’s a big powerful puncher... He’s aggressive. He’s very dangerous. He’s got strong kicks. He’s got strong punches. He’s one of those guys that if you give him space, if you let him fight his fight, he’ll bully you. He’ll take advantage of that passiveness and go after you. I do not intend to let him have that... I’m looking to go into this fight to really hurt him. That’s just the mentality I’ve adopted for this fight because I want to get back into that winning circle."

Whittaker continued by declaring that he doesn't fear Costa, adding:

"I want to utilize the skill sets and the training that I’ve been putting in for this camp, and the best way to do that is through him. That’s where I’ll beat him – because I’m not intimidated by him. I’m not scared of anything he’s got. I’m better across the board at everything that he is. My headspace going into it is the best it’s been. I’m going in there with bad intentions, and I’m going in there to try and close this fight early.”

Check out Robert Whittaker's full comments on Paulo Costa below (4:06):