Costa vs Adesanya Is Back: The Viral Exchange That Reopened UFC 253’s Oldest Wound

Paulo Costa did not book a press conference. He posted screenshots.

On September 26, 2026, the Brazilian light heavyweight published a private exchange with Israel Adesanya that immediately tore through MMA Twitter. Costa’s line: “Why are you talking shit? I kissed your sister btw.” Adesanya’s reply: “You kissed my sister? Tell me how my ass taste.”

Costa’s post cleared 23,000 likes and nearly a million views. Recap pages, fighter accounts, and car-cam breakdowns followed within hours. Six years after UFC 253, the grudge is not settled. It just found a new format.

Josh Hokit He comments on that news

🚨Costa reignites beef with Adesanya.

🗣️Costa tweeted: “Why are you talking shit? I kissed your sister btw.”

🗣️Adesanya replied: “You kissed my sister? Tell me how my ass taste.”

The exchange went viral. Costa posted the screenshots and it blew past 23K likes. Josh Hokit broke… pic.twitter.com/j4HsIvVsQ4

— Rombrex (@Rombrex) September 28, 2026

What Costa Posted and Why It Spread

The post itself was almost empty. No long caption. No fight announcement. Just the screenshots.

That is why it worked. The quotes are short enough to screenshot again, crude enough to force a reaction, and attached to two names every UFC fan already has an opinion about.

The sequence, as Costa presented it:

• Costa accuses Adesanya of talking trash.
• Costa adds the sister line as the payoff.
• Adesanya does not deny, lecture, or ignore. He escalates.

Fans immediately ran the logic of the punchline. If Costa kissed Adesanya’s sister, and Adesanya’s comeback implies that sister had contact with him, then Costa… well, the replies wrote themselves. That is the entire engine. One message, one reply, infinite quotes.

Josh Hokit, the undefeated UFC heavyweight who has already traded shots with Costa in 2026, broke the exchange down in an Instagram car video. That clip is how the story jumped from fighter Twitter into the broader MMA recap circuit.

This was not a contract leak or a ranking update. It was two veterans using the one platform they still fully control.

The Fight That Never Left Either Man

Context is not optional here. Without UFC 253, the sister line is just another ugly tweet.

On September 26, 2020, at Fight Island, Adesanya defended the UFC middleweight title against a previously undefeated Costa. “The Last Stylebender” chopped the lead leg, kept range, and finished it at 3:59 of round two. Costa’s perfect record ended in a TKO.

The result was one-sided. The aftermath was worse for Costa.

Adesanya dry-humped Costa after the stoppage, mocked the Brazilian’s corner, and turned the finish into a humiliation clip that still circulates. Costa later called Adesanya “human trash” and labeled the celebration unacceptable. The fight was over. The footage was not.

That night still sits under every later jab:

• Costa spent years framing Adesanya as fragile, underserving, or media-protected.
• Adesanya spent years treating Costa as a barking dog who went quiet once the fence opened.
• Mother’s Day posts, old memes, and “secret juice” jokes kept the feud on a low simmer even after both men moved on to other opponents.

The new messages are not a new rivalry. They are the same rivalry with worse impulse control and better distribution.

Why Costa Poked Now

Timing explains the tweet better than the wording does.

Costa is 16-4. He moved up to light heavyweight and stopped Azamat Murzakanov with a head kick in round three at UFC 327 on April 11, 2026. That win put him back in the 205-pound conversation and ended a stretch of uneven middleweight results. Official rankings have him inside the light heavyweight top 10, commonly listed around No. 6.

He has not fought since April. In September he went public with an ultimatum aimed at UFC chief business officer Hunter Campbell:

• Book the final contracted three-round fight against any light heavyweight.
• Or book a five-rounder in six weeks with a raised purse.
• Or release him.

Dana White’s public reaction was dismissive. Costa is still under contract, still waiting, and still generating more heat on social media than on a fight card.

Adesanya is an easy target in that spot. He is the man who ended Costa’s myth. He is also a former two-division-era face of the middleweight division now sitting on a four-fight losing streak: Sean Strickland, Dricus Du Plessis, Nassourdine Imavov, and Joe Pyfer. His last outing was a second-round TKO loss to Pyfer at UFC Seattle on March 28, 2026. He has left City Kickboxing and started a new camp. Reports have linked him to a possible return against Shara Magomedov, but nothing is locked.

Costa needs attention while the UFC stalls. Adesanya needs to stay visible while the win column stays empty. A six-year personal grudge does both jobs at once.

Adesanya’s Reply Worked Because It Was Classic Izzy

A clean denial would have died in a day. A moral lecture would have handed Costa the clip. Silence would have looked like a flinch.

The reply he sent does what Adesanya has always done in these exchanges: take the insult and make it weirder.

That is the same instinct that produced the post-fight celebration in 2020, the weigh-in gamesmanship, and years of meme-first media. It is also why the quote traveled farther than Costa’s opener. Costa threw a cheap shot. Adesanya turned it into a riddle people wanted to explain out loud.

There is a cost. Dragging a sister into a fighter beef is ugly even by UFC standards. Adesanya’s answer does not protect her either. Both men chose virality over restraint. That is the product.

Could They Actually Fight Again?

Fans will ask. The matchmaking math is colder.

Reasons a rematch is unlikely soon

• They are no longer in the same division. Costa is building at 205. Adesanya is still a middleweight.
• Costa’s own demand is a three-round light heavyweight fight or a release, not a nostalgia main event at 185.
• Adesanya’s next booking, if it comes, is about stopping a skid against a current 185-pound threat, not closing a 2020 chapter.
• The UFC already got the decisive version of this fight.

Reasons the noise will not die

• The first fight left a humiliation clip, not a respectful nod.
• Both men still answer each other in public.
• A catchweight or special-attraction booking remains a content play if Costa’s contract standoff drags on.
• Hokit, recap accounts, and fighter Twitter now have a ready-made bit whenever either name trends.

A rematch is not the story this week. The story is that the first fight still dictates how they talk to each other.

What This Says About UFC Promotion in 2026

Official pressers used to manufacture this exact heat. Now the heat arrives as a cropped DM.

That shift matters for three reasons.

First, fighters own the clip. Costa chose the screenshot, the timing, and the audience. The UFC did not have to clear a quote or book a faceoff.

Second, inactivity is now a content problem. Costa has one fight left and no date. Adesanya has no opponent. Trash talk fills the calendar gap that matchmakers have not filled.

Third, the algorithm rewards the ugliest line, not the most accurate one. “I kissed your sister” is not a fight prediction. It is a engagement device. Adesanya understood that and answered in the same dialect.

If you want to know who is close to a fight, watch the rankings. If you want to know who needs eyes on them this month, watch the replies.

The Grudge Is the Point

Costa did not restart this because he found new tape on Adesanya’s sister. He restarted it because UFC 253 is still the loudest night of his career, and Adesanya is still the man who authored it.

Adesanya did not answer because he needed the last word on a family rumor. He answered because he has never let Costa set the tone without a counterpunch.

The screenshots will age. The comments will move on. The underlying fact will not: one fight in 2020 still has both men performing for each other on a phone.

If the UFC wants the clean version of this story, book Costa his final fight and book Adesanya a winnable return. If it wants the messy version, leave them both waiting. They have already shown what they will do with the spare time.

Where do you land? Is this just two veterans killing a news cycle, or is there still a fight worth making? Drop the take, share the piece with someone who still has the UFC 253 finish saved, and follow for the next development the second either man posts again.