Paulo Costa will move up to light-heavyweight for his next fight against Azamat Murzakanov at UFC 327 in Miami, Florida on April 11th.
A former middleweight title contender, Costa had originally been scheduled to fight Brunno Ferreira in a 185lb bout at UFC 326 on March 7th, but then withdrew for undisclosed reasons.
Fans had been eager to see the 34-year-old in action again in the division as he is coming off a good win over Roman Kopylov last July in which he’d looked much more like his old self after a disappointing slump in form in recent years.
However, Costa has now thrown a curveball by taking on a fight at 205lbs instead.
It won’t be his divisional debut though as Costa infamously didn’t even attempt to make weight for a 2021 bout against Marvin Vettori at 185lbs, and instead negotiated a fight week switch-up to 205lbs instead, which didn’t pay off as he still lost by unanimous decision.
This will be his first fight against an actual light-heavyweight though, and an in-form one at that as the 36-year-old Murzakanov is currently unbeaten in his 16-fight career.
That includes six wins so far in the UFC for Murzakanov since joining from the Contender Series in 2021, beating the likes of Dustin Jacoby, Alonzo Menifield, Brendson Ribeiro and most recently Aleksander Rakic to take the No.6 spot on the 205lb rankings.
Costa vs. Murzakanov bolsters a UFC 327 event that doesn’t yet have a headliner confirmed, but will also feature the likes of Dominick Reyes vs. Johnny Walker and Tatiana Suarez vs. Loopy Godinez.
