Paulo Costa’s days fighting at middleweight could be in the rearview mirror.
Paulo Costa is scheduled to fight Marvin Vettori this weekend at UFC Vegas 41. The bout was originally set to take place in the middleweight division. However, coming into fight week, Costa announced that he was not on track to meet the middleweight limit of 186 pounds. He ask for a catchweight of 195 pounds and was granted it. Then, the night before the weigh-ins, the new agreement became 205 pounds.
This isn’t a good look for Costa, who had plenty of time to cut weight or come to his realization earlier. The manager of Vettori, Ali Abdelaziz, took to social media to express his disappointment in this situation.
“I wasn’t gonna say nothing but he is making fun of weight cut,” Abdelaziz wrote. “He is doing everything to make ufc to cut him and cancel the fight. But this is not gonna happen.”
Vettori and his team are being very understanding throughout this whole situation. Costa has never missed weight before in the UFC but has been known to gain quite a bit out of competition. Coming into the media day he expressed that he had a reason behind all this but didn’t express what the issue was.
“I was being told he will never be allowed to fight in middleweight again,” he continued. “I will do my best to make his opponent last name Magomedov. This is disrespectful to the sports, the coaches, training partners, even worst his team laughing with him and think it is funny.”
This bout between Costa and Vettori was being marketed as a possible title elimination bout. With the weight trouble, it seems unlikely that even with a win Costa could be next for the title shot.
Do you think Paulo Costa should be forced to move up to light heavyweight in the future or is this just a one-off?
