Well, it should be no surprise to anyone that the staredown between Marvin Vettori and Paulo Costa for their UFC Vegas 41 light heavyweight bout got intense.
Costa shocked the MMA community when he showed up for fight week nowhere near the contracted middleweight limit. Not only that, he seemed pretty uninterested in attempting to make a catchweight of 195 pounds either. After some back and forths between the UFC and both fighter camps, their main event will now take place at 205 pounds.
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LIVE! Stream UFC Vegas 41 On ESPN+
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) returns to UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Sat., Oct. 23, 2021, with a highly-anticipated match up in the Middleweight division, as No. 2-ranked contender Paulo Costa returns to action against No. 5-seeded Marvin Vettori. In UFC Vegas 41’s Lightweight co-main event, Grant Dawson looks to remain undefeated in UFC when he locks horns with Ricky Glenn.
Costa officially weighed in at 204.5 pounds and Vettori at 204 pounds.
Then when it was time to face off, an angry Vettori immediately threw his middle fingers in Costa’s face and started shouting obscenities at him. A little half hearted attempt to push past matchmaker Sean Shelby’s arms led to Costa laughing at the whole exchange. Things ended with Vettori jawing at “Borrachinha” all the way backstage.
Paulo Costa and Marvin Vettori face off and things immediately get heated. Double birds from Vettori and a whole lot of trash talking.
Went about as well as can be expected given the circumstances, really. #UFCVegas41 pic.twitter.com/WBFa9bjJqW
— MMA mania (@mmamania) October 22, 2021
“You lost to the f—king scale!” Vettori declared, and we can’t really argue with that statement.
There’s definitely no love lost between these two, and it will be very interesting to see whether Marvin Vettori is able to channel all that anger against a larger Paulo Costa on fight night.
Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC Vegas 41 fight card right here, starting with the ESPN+ “Prelims” matches, which are scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. ET, then the remaining main card balance on ESPN+ at 4 p.m. ET.
To check out the latest and greatest UFC Vegas 41: “Costa vs. Vettori” news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here.