Costa Before & After ‘Chubby’ Phase

Costa admits he was “Chubby” in the latter half of 2021, leading to a scale fail at UFC Vegas 41, but “The Eraser” appears to have rubbed out his extra pounds ahead of UFC 278 in Salt Lake City.

Earlier this week, former middleweight title challenger Paulo Costa was bragging about his new and improved physique as he prepared for his Luke Rockhold showdown at the upcoming UFC 278 pay-per-view (PPV) event on Sat. night (Aug. 20) inside Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah. Aside from his vanity, “The Eraser” had something to prove after failing to make his mark against Marvin Vettori, forcing “The Italian Dream” to move up to light heavyweight for their “Sin City” showdown.

Would history repeat itself today in “The Beehive State?”

Costa tipped the scale at 185.5 pounds during the UFC 278 early (and official) weigh ins (get full results and video here), then dropped a few F-bombs on the regulators from United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) for drug testing “The Eraser” during his early morning weight cut. As for Rockhold, he also breezed through the weigh ins at 185.5 pounds.

Here’s a side-by-side pic of Costa ahead of UFC Vegas 41 (L) and UFC 278 (R):

Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC (L), Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC (R)

Here’s video of both attempts:

UFC Vegas 41:

Against UFC 278:

To be fair, Costa looks jacked at any weight.

“I never missed weight [before UFC Vegas 41], I just had the problem with my weight once against Marvin,” Costa told CBS Sports. “I injured my arm three weeks before the fight. So I stopped training. I decided to get out of the fight. My team talked to me and said, ‘We can do this. Use more kicks. Use more Muay Thai than boxing. You can do this.’ I started to do different things but not train as hard as I should train so my weight stayed very high. A lot of mistakes happened in communication with my old agent, Wallid [Ismail], and the UFC.”

This marks the final fight on the Brazilian’s current UFC contract.

MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 278 fight card RIGHT HERE, starting with the early ESPN/ESPN+ “Prelims” matches at 6 p.m. ET, followed by the remaining undercard balance on ABC/ESPN/ESPN+ at 8 p.m. ET, before the PPV main card start time at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN+ PPV.

To check out the latest and greatest UFC 278: “Usman vs. Edwards 2” news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here. For the complete UFC 278 fight card and PPV line up click here.