The UFC Vegas 41 main event is in a very interesting spot at the moment. Today was media day for all of the fighters and some interesting things were shared. Before getting into some of the comments, let’s rewind to just past midnight when Marvin Vettori (17-4-1) took to Twitter.
The Italian middleweight tweeted that Costa was looking for a way out of the fight. An interesting tweet that had a lot of people scratching their heads. Today, we learned a little more insight into the context of Vettori’s tweet.
Paulo Costa (13-1) took to the podium today and announced that he would not be making weight for this week’s main event. Worth noting that Costa has competed at middleweight for several years and in his last fight, he fought for the UFC middleweight title and made 185 pounds.
Costa told the media that he’s currently weighing 211 pounds just two days away from the weigh ins. The former title challenger said that he’s in favor of a catchweight fight. He said, “Maybe we can do a catchweight at 195 pounds.”
The UFC’s Options
Paulo Costa is starting to become a headache for Dana White and the UFC. This all dates back to last year when Costa had his title shot against Israel Adesanya. Prior to the Adesanya fight, Costa was looked at as a guy who does nothing but walk you down while throwing heat.
Well, he was incredibly tentative in the Adesanya fight and barely landed any strikes before getting stopped in the second round. After the fight, Costa made a number of excuses including saying that he lost because he drank too much wine the night before UFC 253.
Then, Costa agreed to face Jared Cannonier in August. However, that fight was scrapped after Costa came out and said that he wasn’t thrilled with the UFC’s financial offer to him. Dana White quickly pointed out that after his last fight and his excuses that he was in no position to demand anything.
Now, there’s this issue with the weight. The contract from day one for UFC Vegas 41 stated that this was a middleweight fight and now it sounds like Costa will not even come close to that. This will definitely be something to monitor over the coming days.