185? 195? Vettori Vs. Costa Now 205 Pound Fight

Marvin Vettori has been changed once again from a 185 pound fight to a 195 pound catchweight to a 205 pound light heavyweight bout.

If you’ve ever wondered what stops big fighters from just showing up for fights wildly overweight, it turns out the answer is not much at all.

Nick Diaz revealed that when he showed up for UFC 266 fight week and asked that his bout with Robbie Lawler be switched from welterweight to middleweight. And now Paulo Costa is doing pretty much the same thing after arriving in Las Vegas at a hefty 211 pounds and declaring there was no way he’d be making the contracted weight for his 185 pound main event against Marvin Vettori.

As if not even trying to make weight wasn’t bad enough, it now seems like Costa can’t even make the adjusted and agreed upon 195 pound catchweight limit for the bout either. According to Yahoo Sports, the UFC and Vettori have been forced to grant “Borrachinha” yet another 10 pounds of leeway, turning their middleweight contender bout into a light heavyweight showdown.

Yahoo’s Kevin Iole has close connections with UFC brass, so it’s worth paying attention to the general feeling he carried out of that talk with Chief Business Officer Hunter Campbell.

So is Paulo Costa straight up f—king with the UFC at this point to try and score a release? Hard to say for sure, but things have certainly been frosty between the promotion and the hot-tempered Brazilian since a proposed August 2021 fight against Jared Cannonier fell apart over money issues, seemingly instigated by Costa seeing how much YouTuber turned boxer Jake Paul was getting paid.

“Less than $350k is a joke,” Costa wrote on Twitter. “UFC needs to pay me as main fighter to have fighting in main events. YouTubers are showing all disgrace on this business. Just to be clear. I never signed or locked up that contract. Why UFC announced this fight if didn’t signed? My question too.”

UFC president Dana White handled that situation as delicately as he ever does.

“He’s under contract,” White declared at the time. “I’m supposed to let people out of their contract just because they’re mad that YouTube kid is fighting and making money? … You just came off a ridiculous, horrible performance. Come back and put yourself in a position to do something big.”

Well, you can’t say Paulo Costa isn’t something big right now.