Fight week leading to UFC Vegas 41 has been something else. The originally scheduled middleweight headliner between former title contenders Paulo Costa and Marvin Vettori went from a 195-pound catchweight to a 205-pound matchup in two days — all because “Borrachinha” won’t be able to make the 185-pound limit.
Weight misses are common in MMA. And if there’s one man who’d be deeply familiar with it, it would be Anthony Johnson. “Rumble” began his UFC career at 170 pounds and missed the mark twice. He then moved up to middleweight, only to incur two more weight misses.
Now comfortably fighting at light heavyweight in Bellator, the 37-year-old spoke about the Costa situation in a short series of Instagram stories. First, he put Costa on blast by comparing his situation from years back.
“I missed weight 3 times while fighting for ufc. Even if I knew it would be a struggle I’d still try and make the weight and not be a bitch and try to do catch outta the blue cuz I was lazy. Costa wants the fame and glory without putting the work,” Johnson wrote.
“Bash me all you want but even I didn’t make up excuses or cop out.”
Rumble then offered some unsolicited advice.
“If he fights 205 just stay there… That way there’s no more excuses and nobody will see how lazy he is. Trust me going up in weight is much better and makes life much easier.”
Both Costa and Vettori have successfully made weight at 204.5 pounds and 204 pounds, respectively. They meet at the center of the Octagon on Saturday at UFC Vegas 41 in the APEX facility.
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