A Middleweight Clash Or Light Heavyweight?

Saturday October 23rd, middleweights contenders Paulo Costa and Marvin Vettori go head to head in a five round main event. They are both coming off losses to the champion Israel Adesanya. This recent loss Costa faced to Adesanya is his first loss in the UFC and it has me questioning how he’s going to react towards it. He’s also came out recently saying he was not going to make weight and has recently convinced Vettori to make the bout a catch weight at 195. I believe this is tremendously awful of Costa, he is very lucky Vettori just wants to fight and does not care. If the fight was going to be at 185 I think Costa would be 10 pounds over or more and that’s just very unprofessional. I think he should be cut honestly if he loses Saturday night. He had a year lay off after his loss to Adesanya and two canceled bouts. At his press conference on Wednesday he said he was about 211 pounds which is 26 pounds always from the 185 mark, I was speechless hearing him say that. I commend Vettori for still trying to make this fight happen and being a professional fighter.

With that being said styles make a fight and with these individuals there styles can lead to a barn burner. Costa is a volume striker who likes to set a pace and put his opponent on their back heel. Costa throws really nice body and head kicks and will definitely use them against Vettori. He also is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt which is going to be used Saturday night. Even if he has the credentials to grapple with Vettori he’s most likely going to stand and strike and avoid getting taken down. Vettori is going to be a work horse in his approach and try to out work his opponent. He’s going to keep on going for takedowns left and right and try to match or better his opponents’ pressure. Even though Vettori is a brown belt which is lower than Costa black belt I still believe Vettori has the grappling advantage and knows how to wrestle better. Vettori is also very durable and has great cardio and even when tired he just powers through it. I believe the winner of this fight will become a contender again and stay relevant at middleweight.

After I was going to publish this article news came out that the fight is now at light heavyweight which is 205 pounds, which is 20 pounds from middleweight. This means Costa only decided to lose 6 pounds from the day of the press conference. I hope the UFC cuts him if he loses and takes 50% of his purse for changing the weight twice. He is making a mockery of the sport and downplaying the great athletes who bust their butt off cutting weight.