From the gym to the octagon, let's relive the fire that made Paulo a legend in our hearts!
was midweek tuesdays back then when you'd stumble into the forum and someone would drop a grainy youtube vid from some pro-am card in bristol 2015 and before you know it half the thread's shakin' with excitement — how this young lad from belo horizonte just kept poppin' that left hook through two, three bodies at once like it was nothing, eh? someone had the foresight to say "this kid's got arms for days" and honestly that was the moment we all went "oh we’re gonna see this bloke for a long time".
Remember when the grass was greener 🌱
ever had your toast pop up just as that boxing vid goes fullscreen and you burn the bread but don't even care? same night in 2015 mate — sat on the leaky couch in queens with a £3 cheesy slice on my lap, laptop fan roaring like it’s our lot gonna need a tune-up after Costa’s first combo 🔥 then the vid hits, three guys crumpled under that left hand like bowling pins and i nearly launched the whole pizza slice into my brother’s face just shoutin’ “defo somethin’ to watch” 💪 ah well, nowt to do
ever caught yourself laughing at the fridge humming too loud when a highlight reel hits? got me thinkin’ about this tiny gym in los angeles where paulo trained right after his first pro loss — some forgettable regional card in riverside, yeah? the whole place was buzzin’ but nobody’d heard of him yet, just this quiet kid workin’ bag with a left hook so loose it looked like he forgot to put it back in after the warm-up. then one night this big dude called tony "two-bodies" tony because of how many amateurs he’d dropped outside chicago, steps in for a sparring round. first clean shot—left hand cracks tony’s nose clean off his face, gym goes dead silent for half a second then some old mexican guy in the corner starts yellin’ "mira, mira!" like paulo just proved gravity wrong. two weeks later that same right-hand cross—where the hell did it go?—was headline on mma media next to his next fight promo. ah well, the fridge never knew what hit it either
Been here longer than some have followed.
oh for feck’s sake that time in bristol 2015 i nearly burned down my nan’s flat—literally had the iron on the shirt she bleated at me to “just iron it quick quick” then bam left hook vid fullscreen and i forgot the iron was still on, lifted the sleeve half a second after *riiiip* and the whole bottom of the shirt is now just a sad heap of iron-scorched lint 🔥 meanwhile nan’s in the next room shoutin’ “ooh that Paulo Costa’s left hand looks proper scary mate” like she just watched it on mrs brown’s boys 😂 proper warm welcome into the family that day, shame my wardrobe’s now like a crime scene
Came to laugh, stayed for life 🍿