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Paulo Costa is one of the UFC’s high-profile fighters and has become a unique personality in mixed martial arts. In addition to what he can do inside the cage, the Brazilian sensation is well criticized for his foolish attitude and nonseriousness as he claimed that he had a bottle of wine before his title fight against Israel Adesanya.
Costa was widely criticized for his weight heading into a Fight Night headliner against Marvin Vettori in October 2021. Costa weighed 211 pounds when he arrived in Las Vegas for a fight meant to be contested at the middleweight maximum of 186 pounds. Ultimately, he made Vettori jump from middleweight to light heavyweight on one week's notice for the fight and lost via unanimous decision. Dana White also revealed that Costa won’t be competing again in the middleweight division.
The latter of those points is why there are going to be a lot of eyes on Paulo when he weighs in for his return to the octagon against former champion Luke Rockhold. During his media day, Costa spoke confidently about his ability to hit the scale at 186 or less.
“Yes, I guarantee [he’ll make weight]. If you want to bet, I’ll bet. I can make the weight tonight.”
Paddy has become known for his ballooning up in between the fights. But the Liverpool star has been perfect on the scales before the fight although he was unable to make the weight cut on a few occasions early in his career. When Costa was asked about whether The Baddy has tipped him with the secrets of the weight cut. He said,
“Yeah, he gave me a few instructions. Man, if you look for me and Paddy, it’s not a joke anymore. We have to cut a lot of weight in a short time. When I saw Paddy fight two weeks ago, I tweeted this I said man, this is a short time to cut that much weight, but he did it. He did great, and me as well! We know how to cut weight.”
Exactly, the weight cut is not a joke. MMA fighters cut more weight than other combat sports athletes and cut more in the last 24 hours before the weigh-in using extreme methods like saunas or sweat suits to dehydrate themselves to lose weight. Most of them miss up to two meals a day during weight cutting and sometimes even eat as little as 300-750 calories a day. Such energy and fluid restriction can reduce nervous system function and muscles' speed and capacity to work.
Paulo Costa suffered back-to-back losses against Israel Adesanya and Marvin Vettori which snapped his 13-fight win streak. But still, he is considered a genuine contender for the title fight. For that, the Brazilian will need to prove his critics wrong when he finds Luke Rockhold across the octagon at UFC 278. Paulo will be looking to achieve a victory with his powerful striking within the distance while Luke Rockhold will try to exhaust Costa through his tough ground game.