Paulo Costa moves up to light heavyweight for next UFC fight

Paulo Costa volition determination up to the airy heavyweight part successful his adjacent UFC appearance. Although this is the archetypal clip helium has been booked successful beforehand to vie successful this division, it volition beryllium his 2nd bout successful the airy heavyweight division. Costa has developed a estimation successful caller years arsenic a combatant whose bouts are often cancelled, with 7 fights successful the past 4 years falling done the cracks. The erstwhile middleweight rubric challenger was primitively scheduled to combat Bruno Ferreira astatine UFC 326 connected March 7, but pulled retired of the bout without mentation conscionable days aft the announcement.

He has present arranged different combat against undefeated Azamat Murzakanov astatine UFC 327, which is acceptable for April 11 astatine the Kaseya Center successful Miami, Florida. According to a study by MMA writer Laerte Viana: "Acabei de apurar que Paulo Borrachinha vai subir de categoria para enfrentar o sexto bash ranking até 93 kg, Azamat Murzakanov, 16-0 com 13 knockouts, nary UFC 327, dia 11 de abril. Surpresos?"

Costa fought for the archetypal clip successful the airy heavyweight class astatine UFC Vegas 41 successful October 2021, erstwhile helium was astir 11 kilograms heavier than the middleweight bounds for the lucifer against Marvin Vettori, truthful the combat was moved to airy heavyweight. Then helium mislaid by unanimous determination of the judges. His past quality was astatine UFC 318 successful July 2025, erstwhile helium defeated Roman Kopilov via unanimous determination to drawback a two-fight losing streak against erstwhile champions Sean Strickland and Robert Whittaker.

Rough patch

The 34-year-old Brazilian is presently going done a unsmooth spot successful his career, going 2-4 successful his past six fights and 7-4 wide successful the UFC. He has a 15-4 nonrecreational grounds overall, with 11 knockouts.

On the different hand, Azamat Murzakanov enters the bout undefeated; the 36-year-old is 16-0 professional, with 11 knockouts and 1 submission. He knocked retired Aleksandar Rakić successful the archetypal circular astatine UFC 321 successful October and continues his awesome streak.

This combat promises to beryllium 1 of the astir anticipated matches astatine UFC 327, particularly fixed Murzakanov’s immense momentum and Costa’s tendency to instrumentality to signifier astatine a higher value class.