Breaking: Paulo Costa and Marvin Vettori to headline UFC Fight Night event on October 23rd

Breaking: Paulo Costa and Marvin Vettori to headline UFC Fight Night event on October 23rd

Paulo Costa vs Marvin Vettori booked

UFC has booked a middleweight matchup to headline the October 23rd Fight Night event. Paulo Costa vs Marvin Vettori is the headliner.

Paulo Costa and Marvin Vettori are the UFC middleweight division’s top contenders. The two fighters are set to fight in the main event on the October 23rd card. The location and venue have yet to be announced by the UFC. Going by where the UFC prefers to host its Fight Night events post-pandemic, it wouldn’t be a wild guess to say the venue to be set at the UFC Apex, Las Vegas. The news about this matchup was first reported by ESPN’s Brett Okamoto.

Costa has not fought inside the octagon since his title bout against current middleweight champion Israel Adesanya in October of 2020. Costa is coming off a loss against Izzy via TKO at UFC 253. Costa has a record of 18-2-0 in his career. His booked opponent, Vettori also is coming off a loss against the champion at UFC 263 in June 2021. That was Vettori’s rematch against Izzy. The Italian has a record of 24-8-2 in his professional career.

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Marvin Vettori and Paulo Costa verbal exchanges

Paulo Costa
Paulo Costa

This fight is nothing out of the blue as Vettori and Costa have been going back and forth for quite some time now. Even after his unanimous decision loss against Adesanya in 2021, Vettori called out “drunk guy” and said he would fight him. “To be honest, I’d like to really destroy this drunk guy that can’t even stay off drinking,” Vettori said in the post-fight interview. “It’s ‘Borrachinha’ … I’d definitely like to smack this guy. I am as game as they come. You can count on me, when there’s a fight and there’s a date, I’ll show up. We’ll see.”

After Vettori’s call out, the Brazilian did not waste too much time in responding to the Italian. Costa went on Twitter and agreed to fight “moron” Vettori in his next bout. Apart from this tension between the two fighters, another reason for Costa’s inactivity has been the fighter pay issue with UFC President Dana White. Now that he has agreed to a fight under the promotion, looks like things have been sorted regarding his contract.

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Also read: “I can fight this moron,” Paulo Costa agrees to fight Marvin Vettori after his call-out at UFC 263