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ESPN app. Editor’s note: The article has been updated at 9 p.m.
ET on Oct. 21 to reflect a change in the weight
classification. The upcoming Ultimate Fighting Championship main event has
gone through several transformations before setting on a new weight
class on Thursday night.
At
UFC Fight Night 196 Media Day on Wednesday, Paulo Costa
stated matter-of-factly that he would not be able to reach the
middleweight limit of 186 pounds come Friday for the weigh-ins.
There were immediate concerns their headlining matchup would be
scuttled, as Costa admitted to weighing 211 pounds on Wednesday
afternoon, thus requiring a drastic 25-pound cut in less than 48
hours.
During that interview with the media, Costa hoped that he and
Marvin
Vettori could meet at 195 pounds or higher, in order to make
the weight cut less strenuous on both men. Vettori expressed that
he was already in the midst of his own serious cut to middleweight,
and he was none too thrilled at the prospect of this fight
designation changing. In an interview with ESPN on Wednesday
night, the two verbally agreed to this fight changing to a
195-pound catchweight, but the details needed to be hammered out
with the promotion, the commission and the fighters themselves
behind the scenes.
Yahoo Sports was the first to release on Thursday that all
parties had come to an agreement to make this “UFC Vegas 41” main
event from a middleweight matchup to one that takes place at 195
pounds. The news has since been confirmed by other outlets and the
promotion itself. As a result, Costa has already been fined 20% of
his purse, which will go straight to Vettori. Any further weight
misses – many have already speculated that Costa may not be able to
hit 195 pounds or the potential one-pound allowance that may come
with the new weight target – will be handed by the Nevada State
Athletic Commission, which has the power to revoke the fight itself
should there be enough of a weight discrepancy or for medical
reasons.
Speaking to Sherdog’s Marcelo Alonso on Thursday night, Costa’s
manager Wallid Ismail has since provided an update that the bout,
while once a 195-pound catchweight affair, has since been agreed to
at the light heavyweight range of 205 pounds. Both men have now
agreed to the new weight classification, and they have signed
contracts to make this official. This may serve to alleviate any
weight miss concerns some had for Costa, who now only needed to cut
five pounds from the discussed 211 to the light heavyweight limit
of 206.
The last UFC main event to deliberately come outside of a standard
weight category, where neither competitor missed weight, came at
UFC Fight Night 95 in 2016. There, Cristiane
Justino and Lina
Lansberg fought at 140 pounds, and “Cris Cyborg” put Lansberg
away in the second round. For men, the most recent catchweight
headliner took place atop UFC 147 in 2012, when Rich
Franklin and Wanderlei
Silva threw down, in a rematch at the affectionally termed
“Franklinweight” of 190 pounds due to the sizeable gap between
middleweight and light heavyweight.
