Paulo Costa Focused On Staying At 185, Per His Manager

Former UFC middleweight title challenger Paulo Costa will stay at middleweight, despite Dana White pushing for a move to 205.

Costa’s manager, Wallid Ismael, confirmed the news during a recent interview with Sherdog.

This comes after Costa’s weight-cutting fiasco ahead of his fight with Marvin Vettori at UFC Vegas 41. During fight week, Costa alluded to having the main event at a catchweight for an unclear reason at the time. White had alluded to him needing to move to light heavyweight for the remainder of his UFC tenure, but he has changed his mind.

Ismael explained why Costa intends on staying at middleweight, despite his series of weight-cutting issues in recent fights.

Wallid Ismael Confirms Paulo Costa Was Injured Ahead Of Last Fight

“The UFC is not the biggest fighting company in the world by chance,” Ismael said. “They know that [Costa] was injured and that’s why he had problems with his weight. There is no doubt his next fight will take place in the middleweight division. We will fight whoever the UFC decides. I keep believing that ‘Borrachinha’ will be the champion. He just has to train right. His biggest problem is that he trains too much. If he trains correctly, I have no doubt no one in that division can beat him.”

Despite Ismael’s praises, Costa has quite a bit of work to do to get back in the title picture. He lost via unanimous decision to Vettori and is now on the outside looking in when it comes to a potential rematch with Israel Adesanya.

White has yet to respond to Ismael’s comments, but he’ll surely be asked about it sooner rather than later. After he was defiant in his desire for Costa to move up in weight, it’ll be interesting to see who the promotion matches him up with next.

What is your reaction to Paulo Costa staying at middleweight?