Less than 24 hours after they were scheduled to weigh in for their UFC Vegas 41, Paulo Costa and Marvin Vettori have agreed to fight at 205 pounds.
The light heavyweight matchup is the second time the fight’s contracted weight has changed after Costa revealed on Wednesday that he would be unable to make the middleweight limit that was originally agreed to, and the promotion booked a catchweight bout at 195 pounds with Costa agreeing to forfeit 20 percent of his purse to Vettori.
Sherdog.com first reported the shift in weight, and Yahoo! Sports Kevin Iole spoke to UFC executive Hunter Campbell, who confirmed that both fighters had signed new contracts. Multiple people with knowledge of negotiations also confirmed the fight’s new weight to MMA Fighting.
On Thursday evening, Costa posted videos of himself in a portable sauna and said he was on his way to making weight.
But in one video posted to Twitter, Costa also included the caption “stop changes,” prompting a fiery reply from Vettori, who’d earlier vented on his opponent’s lack of professionalism while agreeing to the 195-pound fight.
Costa and Vettori are scheduled to weigh in for the Saturday contest on Friday morning. It’s unclear at the time of this writing whether the light heavyweight revision will allow the competitors a one-pound allowance; at 195 pounds, it was not allowed.
Vettori later commented on the switch via his Instagram account.
Costa returns to the octagon for the first time since a second-round TKO loss to champ Israel Adesanya 13 months ago at UFC 253. The Brazilian later blamed the result on his decision to drink an entire bottle of wine the night before.
Vettori, meanwhile, was outpointed by Adesanya in a rematch at UFC 263 in June.
