Dan Hooker blasts Paulo Costa over giant weight miss: “That is just a massive ‘F you’ to the fans”

UFC lightweight Dan Hooker blasted middleweight Paulo Costa over his giant weight miss, saying “that is just a massive ‘F you’ to the fans.”

Costa was set to fight Marvin Vettori in a middleweight bout that served as the main event of UFC Vegas 41, but Costa showed up heavy to fight week. Because he couldn’t make the 185lbs limit, the fight was then moved to a 195lbs catchweight, and then to the 205lbs light heavyweight limit. Costa was fined 30% of his purse and the fight went on at 205, with Vettori winning a unanimous decision in a back-and-forth fight.

Speaking to Submission Radio in a recent interview, Hooker blasted Costa for his unprofessionalism in missing weight, calling it disrespectful to the fans and to MMA.

“What Costa did, he didn’t earn the right to do that. It was a funny situation because it was only what, a couple of weeks ago that we let Nick Diaz roll up and do it. But Paulo Costa hadn’t done for the sport what Nick Diaz had done, but obviously same result, he got the weight class changed entirely. So I don’t know, it’s kind of funny, like a bit of a power play. But it’s not for me, it’s not like the Anzac culture of the sport,” Hooker said (via MMAFighting.com). “That would never happen, something like that in New Zealand or Australia. I feel like if you just showed up to a local kickboxing show with your fighter 10 kilos (approx. 22 pounds) overweight and you were like, ‘What are you gonna do about it?’ I feel like you’d get beaten up in the car park. It’s just a sign of respect. That’s all it is. It’s a matter of respect. I show up on weight as a respect for my opponent, as a respect for my gym, as a respect for representing who I represent,” continued Hooker. “It’s a sign of respect to the fans, it’s a sign of respect to the promotion. It’s absolutely everything. So it absolutely is what it is. Him coming out like that is just a massive ‘F you’ to the fans, ‘F you’ to the UFC, ‘F you’ to his opponent.”

Do you agree with Dan Hooker about Paulo Costa?