Khamzat Chimaev Says He Didn't DM Paulo Costa's GF, She Messaged Me!

Khamzat Chimaev is calling BS on Paulo Costa's claim that he slid into his girlfriend's direct messages ... telling TMZ Sports that's just not how it went down!

"Why should I DM somebody's wife, bro?" the 31-year-old UFC star said Wednesday from a pre-fight workout in SoCal.

"She DM'ed before the fight, when I announced the fight like, 'Khamzat, please don't take it seriously. We're just trying to make money and hype'," Chimaev recounted, before revealing what he said back.

"I don't care what they are, I'm just going to f*** your boy up, and that's it. And then [Costa] takes it all personally and stuff. I don't care."

The interaction blew up at a press event before UFC 318 ... when 34-year-old Costa flew off the rails, unloading on Chimaev for the alleged DMs.

"I want to fight him very badly. I want to hurt him," Paulo told reporters.

"We need to fight. He talked very bad things about me to my girl on Instagram DM's. This is totally personal. I feel angry just to hear his name, so we need to fight."

Two men, two different perspectives on the same story ... but does Chimaev have any interest in fighting Costa in the future?

"I beat the guys who beat him," Khamzat quipped. "Maybe in the future if he wins a couple of fights, but I don't think he will do that. In the last five years, he won only one fight."

So, while it seems unlikely Khamzat and Paulo settle the score in the Octagon, Chimaev does have a fight he's training for ... an August 16 scrap with Dricus Du Plessis, and the UFC's Middleweight title is on the line.

"Everyone says [Dricus has a] weird style," Khamzat explained ... "That's MMA style. I don't think it's some crazy weird [style], but he does his job. He does good, and he's a good fighter. I'm better."