UFC Fight Night 196 results: Marvin Vettori defeat Paulo Costa via unanimous decision
Despite weight fluctuations during fight week, Marvin Vettori and Paulo Costa put on a fantastic 25-minute battle. The main event of UFC Fight Night 196 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas was a light heavyweight battle. It was available to watch on ESPN+.
The fight was originally scheduled for middleweight, but it was temporarily shifted to a catchweight of 195 pounds before finally settling on 205 pounds just days before the fight.
Given their differences in the build-up to the battle, neither man wanted to touch gloves before the fight started.
Costa (13-2 MMA, 5-2 UFC) got the fight started with a few strong kicks. Vettori (18-4-1 MMA, 8-3-1 UFC) seems content to let his opponent hit first in the first round while looking for counters. Vettori kept Costa against the fence with roughly two minutes left in the round and unleashed a barrage of blows. It was a turning point in the round, as Vettori began to land more and more blows as the round progressed and Costa's hitting output slowed.
As the second round began, Vettori appeared to be the fresher fighter, but Costa continued to land heavy kicks to the body and punches upstairs. Costa landed a strong kick to the head, but Vettori managed to stay on his feet and escape being hurt by a barrage of attacks from Costa, who felt the fight was over.
Vettori was able to withstand the storm and keep the pressure on Costa, which resulted in a takedown. On the canvas, nothing important happened, but shortly as they got back to their feet, Costa poked Vettori's eye, prompting a break in the fight. For the foul, referee Jason Herzog deducted a point.
Vettori continued to put pressure on his opponent when the fight resumed. Until the round ended, the two traded heavy strikes in the cage's centre.
Marvin Vettori (190) and Paulo Costa (163) combined for 353 significant strikes landed, the 4th largest count in UFC history and the largest count ever not featuring Max Holloway, per UFC Stats. pic.twitter.com/41iyC39KcY
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) October 23, 2021
Vettori continued to command the tempo of the fight in the third round, punching with more volume than Costa. The Brazilian, on the other hand, continued to hurl kicks and punches with the objective of ending the battle. Costa got a beautiful takedown in the middle of the cage, but Vettori got on top after a botched guillotine attempt and stayed there until the finish of the round.
Vettori continued to lead the dance by applying pressure and picking well-placed blows in the fourth round like he had in the previous rounds. Costa started out on the wing, but after Vettori scored with a couple of great combinations, he began to push forward. Throughout the round, Vettori's hitting appeared sharper than Costa's, landing cleaner punches.
Costa came out firing in the first fifth round of his UFC career, maybe knowing he needed a finish. Early on, he targeted Vettori's body with strong kicks and punches, prompting Vettori to go for a takedown to slow the fight down. Costa was able to keep the battle standing and continued to throw strikes in an attempt to stop the bout. Vettori may have lost the final round, but he was far from out, and the fight would be decided on the scorecards.
The judges reached a unanimous judgement in favour of Vettori because they all saw the fight in his favour.
Vettori is back in the win column following a strong showing on Saturday, bouncing back nicely from his title challenge defeat to Israel Adesanya at UFC 263 in June. Vettori won five consecutive fights to get his opportunity at the title, and he'll likely need a few more wins to secure a third fight versus Adesanya.
Costa has now lost two straight fights after losing his title attempt to Israel Adesanya at UFC 253 last year. The two losses are his only professional defeats in 15 fights, but with the last-minute alterations during this fight week, the bigger issue moving forward will be the weight class he will compete in.
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