Originally scheduled to be a middleweight bout, the UFC Vegas 41 main event between Paulo Costa and Marvin Vettori will now take place at in the light heavyweight division.
Costa, the No. 2 ranked middleweight, showed up for fight week much too heavy to cut down to 186 pounds. During Wednesday’s UFC Vegas 41 Media Day, Costa revealed that he was weighing 211 pounds at the time.
After some negotiations between the fight promotion and the two fight camps, and Costa relinquishing a portion of his fight purse to Vettori, the fight was moved to a catchweight match at 195 pounds. That all changed on Thursday night, hours before the official weigh-ins. The fight will now take place in the light heavyweight division allowing either fighter to weigh in as heavy as 206 pounds.
Sherdog.com first reported the weight class change and Yahoo! Sports Kevin Iole corroborated the news on Thursday evening after speaking with a UFC executive.
“Just spoke to Hunter Campbell at UFC. The Costa-Vettori fioght is now at 205 pounds. Both fighters have signed deals to fight at that weight. It’s getting ridiculous, but this is Paulo Costa, ladies and gentlemen. Terrible. Terrible. Terrible,” Iole wrote on Twitter.
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Just spoke to Hunter Campbell at UFC. The Costa-Vettori fioght is now at 205 pounds. Both fighters have signed deals to fight at that weight. It’s getting ridiculous, but this is Paulo Costa, ladies and gentlemen. Terrible. Terrible. Terrible.
— Kevin Iole (@KevinI) October 22, 2021
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Paulo Costa vs Marvin Vettori weight class gets a second change hours before weigh-ins
