The game of musical weights continues for this weekend’s UFC main event.
Paulo Costa vs. Marvin Vettori will now, as of Thursday night, take place at 205 pounds — the light heavyweight division, UFC chief business officer Hunter Campbell confirmed with ESPN on Thursday night. The fight is scheduled for Saturday night in Las Vegas, with the weigh-ins taking place Friday morning.
The bout was first contracted for middleweight, or 185 pounds. Earlier Thursday, there was an agreement that the Costa-Vettori bout would be moved up to a catchweight of 195 pounds and Costa would have to forfeit 20% of his fight purse to Vettori.
But Thursday night, Campbell said that Costa would not be able to make 195 pounds either, and the UFC made the decision to contest the fight at 205 pounds. Vettori agreed, despite the multiple changes this week, and he will still receive 20% of Costa’s purse, according to Campbell.
Vettori said in an Instagram video Thursday night that a contract was indeed signed for 195 pounds, but that Costa’s team said he could not make it. Vettori called Costa’s actions “very disrespectful.”
“We’re up to 205,” Vettori said. “And here I am, making sure I’m gonna give a fight to all the fans Saturday night and I won’t let this guy get away with it. I accepted the fight. And we’re gonna f—ing do it. We’re gonna slug this motherf—er. We’re gonna beat him.”
Costa said Wednesday at media day that he weighed 211 pounds that afternoon.
Vettori and Costa are both coming off title losses to UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya. ESPN has Costa ranked No. 3 and Vettori ranked No. 6 in the world at middleweight. But now, after a turbulent few days, their bout will take place at light heavyweight.