Paulo Costa reveals he won’t make middleweight, says if fight doesn’t happen it’s because Marvin Vettori ‘don’t want to fight me’

Paulo Costa has made it known he won’t be making weight for his UFC Vegas 41 middleweight main event.

At media day on Thursday, Marvin Vettori revealed the Brazilian came into fight week heavy and has been asking to change the weight. When Costa had his turn at media day, he confirmed it and said his manager has been in contact with Ali Abdelaziz to try and make it a catchweight.

“My weight right now is 96kilos (211 pounds),” Costa said during the UFC Vegas 41 media day (via MMAFighting). “What happened yesterday, [my manager] Wallid [Ismail] talked with some people with him, Ali [Abdelaziz], his manager I think, and it’s not on the schedule to make 185 [pounds] anymore. It’s another weight. I’m not exactly [sure] which weight yet.”

According to Costa, if the fight doesn’t happen, he says it will because Vettori doesn’t want to fight him, not due to the fact he will come in heavy.

“I think this fight will happen,” Costa said. “It just will not happen if he don’t want to fight me. Maybe we can do a catchweight 195 [pounds] maybe but I think make this fight [205 pounds] could be more exciting to the fans. More explosive fight cause I want to go bring the fight for him. Maybe he wants to bring the fight to me. I think with both guys heavy, this knockout can happen easily.”

Ultimately, Paulo Costa is just hoping he and Marvin Vettori’s team can reach an agreement on what weight the fight will be. As just two days before the weigh-in, it is clear this main event will not be at middleweight.

“Make a little difference for me now, four or five pounds, six pounds. I just don’t care,” Costa said. “I’m more concentrated on my weight than on his weight. I don’t care if he makes 225 pounds or more. We need to find a catchweight to make. I don’t know exactly yet.”

What do you make of Paulo Costa not being able to make weight against Marvin Vettori?