“Chenchen Friends”: Paulo Costa Takes Shot at Khamzat Chimaev Over Viral Ring Girl Kicking Incident in Russia

From stealing Merab Dvalishvili’s lunch to coming up with hilarious tweets, Paulo Costa is an entertainer. Most recently, Costa took to social media to poke fun at long-time rival Khamzat Chimaev. The Brazilian fighter, a self proclaimed ‘Meme God’ does not shy away from sharing his unfiltered thoughts on Twitter. This is a major reason for resurgence in his popularity among UFC fans.

Costa took to Twitter to share a video of a recent incident that took place at Hard Fighting Championship. He posted the video with a caption that said,

“Chenchen friends when see hot girls lol”

Chenchen friends when see hot girls lol pic.twitter.com/QDnxlmzYyA

— Paulo Costa ( Borrachinha ) (@BorrachinhaMMA) April 23, 2024

On Friday night in Moscow, the HFC fight card included a match between Iranian fighter Ali Heibati and Arkady Osipyan. Heibati inexplicably moved forward and kicked a ring girl in the derriere as she passed, indicating that the opening round was about to begin.

As soon as Heibati landed the kick, the woman in question was understandably shocked. She dropped the card down and moved towards Heibati in order to confront him.

At this point, the referee stepped in and separated the two individuals. He gave Heibati a piece of his mind before signaling the start of the fight. However, the fight did not last too long as Heibati was stopped in the first round itself.

Following the stoppage, Heibati landed multiple cheap shots after the fight was called off. This resulted in an all out brawl between both camps, similar to that at UFC 229 between McGregor and Nurmagomedov.

This resulted in a permanent ban from the organization for the Iranian fighter. He has since issued an apology to the ring girl as well as to his opponent on social media. Meanwhile, Paulo Costa is preparing for a crucial match against the former middleweight champion, Sean Strickland.

Paulo Costa vs Sean Strickland a fight confirmed by fan interest

Sean Strickland and Paulo Costa are ranked one and seven respectively in the middleweight division. The UFC presented both men with a contract to take on each other.

The fight contract was initially rejected by Strickland. He took to Twitter to share that it was the money for which he rejected the fight.

 

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A post shared by Sean Strickland (@stricklandmma)

A few days later, the promotion confirmed a fight between Strickland and Costa.  However, it is unknown whether Dana White accepted Strickland’s demand for a higher pay to materialize the fight.