Marvin Vettori claims he took home 30% of Paulo Costa’s fight purse at UFC Vegas 41, adding he would have finished ‘The Eraser’ if he “wasn’t as big”.
The former middleweight title challengers, Costa (13-2 MMA) and Vettori (18-5-1 MMA), had initially agreed to compete at their natural fight weight of 185lbs for Saturday’s event. However, in the early days of fight week the Brazilian revealed he would not be able to make weight and thus the contest was moved up to light heavyweight.
Both Marvin Vettori and Paulo Costa had entered tonight’s headliner in hopes of rebounding from their recent setbacks to reigning UFC middleweight kingpin Israel Adesanya.
The bout proved to be a thrilling twenty-five minute affair, and to the surprise of many, Costa seemed to grow stronger in the late stages of the fight. Despite mounting some solid offense in the final five minutes, Paulo Costa ultimately fell short in his comeback bid and Marvin Vettori was awarded a well deserved unanimous decision victory.
‘The Italian Dream’ spoke to reporters at Saturday’s UFC Vegas 41 post-fight press conference where he revealed that he was taking home 30% of Paulo Costa’s contracted fight purse.
“It’s actually 30 percent, not twenty.” – Marvin Vettori replied when asked to comment about receiving twenty percent of Costa’s fight purse.
As for the fight itself, Vettori has “no doubt” that he won rounds 1, 3 and 4 against Costa, with 2 and 5 possibly being up for debate.
In addition, Marvin Vettori feels he would have finished Paulo Costa had they fought at their natural fighting weight of 185lbs.
“If he wasn’t as big I could have finished him,” Vettori said of Costa. “It was hard to hurt him. I couldn’t even get my arms around him he was so big.”
With tonight’s impressive showing, Marvin Vettori has now gone 6-2 over his past eight Octagon appearances. The Italians lone setbacks during that stretch have coming by way of decision (1 split, 1 unanimous) to reigning UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.
Who would you like to see Vettori fight next? Share your thoughts in the comment section PENN Nation!