UFC President Dana White sat down at the post-fight press conference following UFC Vegas 42 and chimed in on the fights. The event produced some spectacular finishes on the jam-packed 11-fight card that was capped off with a scintillating main event. Another show-stealing performance came from Joel Alvarez who stopped Thiago Moises via TKO.
Alvarez is beginning to look like a major player in the lightweight division and appears to be gradually leveling up. However, he missed weight in his last two fights and may be forced to move up to welterweight. With reference to Joel Alvarez’s performance, Dana White revealed that he was beefing with middleweight star Paulo Costa over a similar issue of weight.
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Dana White x Paulo Costa: Who will get the last laugh?
Paulo Costa recently caused quite a stir when he ended up fighting Marvin Vettori at 205-pounds instead of the contracted 185-pounds. While Costa didn’t technically miss weight on the scale, the last-minute weight change was extremely concerning. In fact, UFC President Dana White made it clear that Costa will have to fight at light heavyweight moving forward.
I'd like to see Paulo Costa at 205 just because I'm not a huge fan of weight cutting.
However, he does deserve another chance at 185. It's the first time he misses weight in the UFC and it was by a ton, which tells you something had to go terribly wrong in the camp. https://t.co/nxrGnx9Ad5
— Danny Segura (@dannyseguratv) October 24, 2021
Costa resisted this mandate in the immediate aftermath and it seems like he is still at odds with the UFC. The Brazilian seemingly wants to continue fighting at middleweight and this has created some friction between himself and the UFC brass.
Dana White explicitly revealed that both parties were at odds as to what the next best move is going forward.
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“Listen, if you continuously can’t make weight. You know, we’re beefing with [Paulo] Costa right now over this, you know what I mean.”
“Is there a person in this room who thinks he can come in and the next fight and confident he’ll weigh 185-pounds? Exactly. Anybody? Raise your hand, please. Yeah, I didn’t think so.”
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Someone is going to relent in this stalemate between the UFC and Paulo Costa. Perhaps the former title challenger will be granted one more opportunity to make the middleweight limit going forward. However, a singular slip-up on the scale from here on out will guarantee the end of Costa’s run as a UFC middleweight.