When fighters trade insults on social media or during press conferences, fans usually eat it up as entertainment. But what happens when the trash talk moves beyond the public eye and into personal territory? That’s exactly what Paulo Costa claims happened with Khamzat Chimaev, and it’s turned their professional rivalry into something much more personal.<\/p>
Costa and Chimaev have been circling each other for years now. Both middleweights have been climbing the ranks, with fans constantly calling for them to settle their differences in the octagon. Their beef reached a boiling point back in 2022 when they had a heated confrontation at the UFC<\/a> Performance Institute. Most people thought it was just typical fighter drama, but Costa recently revealed there was much more to the story.<\/p> The Brazilian fighter dropped a bombshell during his appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show<\/strong>. Costa explained that their scheduled fight fell through when he needed elbow surgery, but that’s when things took a weird turn. According to him, Chimaev decided to send threatening messages to his girlfriend Tamara instead of keeping the beef between them as fighters. Paulo Costa didn’t hold back when describing what happened. He said Chimaev sent messages to Tamara saying he was going to beat her husband and do “bad things” to him.<\/p> “That same week [his elbow surgery], he sent a message to my girl, Tamara. He acted like a woman. He said some bad stuff. I remember he said something like, ‘I’m going to beat your husband, and I’m going to do bad things… this, that, and that.’ But he sent it to her, not to me.” <\/em><\/strong><\/p>What Did Khamzat Chimaev Say To Paulo Costa’s Girlfriend?<\/h2>