Paulo Costa has made it clear that he has his heart set on a rematch with Marvin Vettori as he considers his options for his next fight in the UFC.
The former title challenger caused controversy when he unapologetically forced Vettori to move their middleweight fight up to light-heavyweight on a week’s notice late last year due to being nowhere close to the 186lb limit, but still ended up losing out to ‘The Italian Dream’ anyway by unanimous decision, and now he is determined to get revenge.
“I don’t respect him,” Cost told Ag Fight. “I want to end his life. He’s an asshole, a fool. He had this victory over me and he thinks he’s ‘the man. But he’s an asshole, he can’t even wear his shorts right. But I will fight him again. Well, at least I intend to.”
Interestingly, Costa has only one fight remaining on his current deal with the UFC, and the Brazilian has gone as far as to say he has no desire to fight anyone else.
“I’ve just talked to Dana White. I would fight Vettori now,” Costa said. “If they dont give me the rematch, I don’t have interest in any other fight, except for the title. But obviously that wouldn’t make sense now for the UFC.”
Vettori is currently ranked No.2 in the division, but has already lost twice to current champion Israel Adesanya, which does leave him in an awkward spot, though if Robert Whittaker defeated the titeholder in their upcoming rematch then that could swing the door wide open for him to move into title contention.
If Whittaker didn’t win it’s possible he could still face him anyway, while other leading contenders like the No.3 placed Jared Cannonier and No.4 Derek Brunson have also yet to lock horns with him in the Octagon.
That could foil the No.5 ranked Costa’s hopes, but we’ll have to see what the UFC brass has in store for both of them.
