Saturday night,  Israel Adesanya’s defended his title against Yoel Romero. The fight ultimately concluded with a fifth-round decision in favor Adesanya and left many fans unsatisfied with the uneventful turnout. Notably, Dana White expressed his regret for setting the fight up, citing fighter Paulo Costa as a much more formidable opponent.

“When I’m sitting here today talking about this, the matchmakers didn’t love that fight and didn’t want to make that fight,” White said post-fight. “They didn’t want to make Romero vs. Adesanya, but the goy fan in me said, ‘Are you sh*tting me? Come on, this will be a fun fight to do. And the fact that (Adesanya) wants to fight a guy that nobody else wants to fight.’ Now hindsight is 20/20, probably shouldn’t have done that fight and should’ve waited for (Paulo) Costa, but oh well, we did it.”

It was an injury that kept Costa, the rightful No. 1 contender, from taking on Adesanya. Per White, pitting the Brazilian against the Nigerian-born Adesanya will be his next move.

He adds: “Costa vs. Adesanya will be a ridiculous fight. I guarantee it, I absolutely guarantee it. He got what he wanted, he got him (Romero) on his resume, he beat him, and onto Costa.”