Paulo Costa is playing a character in a reality show nobody asked for

Paulo Costa is currently acting like that guy at the local gym who watched three hours of old ECW tapes and decided his personality is now 'unhinged chaos.' His recent comments ahead of UFC 327 are less of a professional call-out and more of a desperate attempt to stay relevant in a sport that moves faster than a Ricochet springboard moonsault.

You can read all about the vitriol Paulo Costa unleashed this week if you enjoy cringe-inducing trash talk. Calling out Khamzat Chimaev while you still have to worry about the guy currently standing across from you is high-level incompetence. It is the tactical equivalent of trying to hit a 450-splash when your opponent isn't even in the ring yet.

The obsession with the middleweight title is wearing thin

Costa seems to think that repeating the same inflammatory rhetoric will earn him a title shot on a silver platter. Newsflash for Paulo: the UFC middleweight division is a meat grinder. Chimaev is a wrecking ball, and talking about him while you are booked for a different fight is just setting yourself up to look foolish on Saturday night.

Every time a fighter tries to 'work' the crowd with lazy insults, I lose a little bit of my soul. It is disrespectful to the actual craft of effective promo work. If you want to talk big, you better be ready to back it up with more than just heavy hands and questionable cardio. We have seen this movie before, and it usually ends with the loudmouth looking at the lights after a first-round submission.

Why this matters for your WrestleMania 41 watchlist

With WrestleMania 41 only 9 days away, the contrast between professional wrestling storylines and this amateur-hour MMA trash talk is stark. WWE writers are currently sweating over the main event pacing and character arcs for Night 1. Meanwhile, Costa is out here tossing around xenophobic barbs like he thinks he is in a 1980s territory feud.

There is a fine line between a compelling heel turn and just being a nuisance, and Costa has blurred it into oblivion. Being a menace is great when you can actually close the distance and finish the job. If you spend your media availability acting like a petulant child, you better look like a god in the cage.

I will give him credit for the commitment to annoying everyone in the room, but the lack of original material is embarrassing. It is a tired act that reeks of someone who ran out of real arguments. If I want to see a guy try and fail to get heat, I will watch an undercard match at a house show in Topeka.

The path forward for an aging gatekeeper

Maybe Costa should worry about his record instead of his social media engagement. He is currently navigating a career path that is starting to look like a mid-card slide. Taking cheap shots at other fighters might get you a few mentions on the timeline, but it does not win you belts or main events.

If he gets flattened at UFC 327, this whole 'I hate you' gimmick is going to be even funnier in hindsight. You cannot ride the wave of being a 'character' if you are losing your status as a legitimate contender. I am rooting for him to actually show something technical on Saturday, but my money is on him gassing out while trying to force a highlight-reel moment.

Ultimately, this is just noise. The real fighters will be training and cutting weight while Costa focuses on his next post-fight interview soundbite. It is a shame really, because buried under the bluster is a guy who used to actually be a terrifying prospect in the middleweight ranks.