4 biggest takeaways from UFC Fight Night 196: Paulo Costa owed no leniency

What mattered most at UFC Fight Night 196 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas? Here are a few post-fight musings …

1. Marvin Vettori can't be shaken

[autotag]Marvin Vettori[/autotag] has rightfully earned his status as a hot-head. Israel Adesanya took him out of his proper state of mind for their UFC 263 title fight in June, and he paid for it. This time around, though, Vettori wasn’t letting Paulo Costa take him off his game.

What makes it all the more impressive is Costa gave Vettori (18-5-1 MMA, 8-3-1 UFC) every excuse to blow his fuse. The fight week shenanigans – which we’ll get into more below – were utterly beyond the scope of unprofessionalism in a sport where the strings are already pretty damn loose when it comes to civilized and reasonable behavior.

Vettori kept calm and carried on, though, and impressively navigated all the BS that was thrown his way. He stepped into the octagon with a winning mindset no matter what he was coming up against, and that carried all the way through five grueling rounds with Costa en route to a unanimous decision victory. Big props to “The Italian Dream.”

Not only did Vettori fight productively against a wild savage like Costa, he ate some utterly absurd head and body kicks over the course of 25 minutes before getting his hand raised. It’s deserving of a lot of praise.

What does this win ultimately mean for Vettori’s future? It doesn’t help him get much closer to another title shot so long as Adesanya has possession of the belt, but it gained Vettori a hell of a lot of good will from fans, fellow fighters, and perhaps most importantly, the UFC brass.

2. The Paulo Costa debacle

If [autotag]Paulo Costa[/autotag] had been washed by Vettori in humiliating fashion inside the first round or something to a similar effect, today’s post-fight conversation would be vastly different.

What Costa (13-2 MMA, 5-2 UFC) did this week was super wack. There’s no sugarcoating it. I’ve seen a lot in roughly a decade covering MMA, and the way Costa handled himself ranks up there among the most disappointing. It wasn’t so much that he just completely ignored the reasonable expectation he’d live up to his end of the contract to fight at the 186-pound, non-title limit – it was his carefree attitude about the whole thing that was the most off-putting.

If Costa had shown even a sliver of remorse over his actions, there would be a lot more room for leniency here. But he didn’t, and he deserves no forgiveness for this mess, even if you believe his claim of a bicep injury that halted training camp.

The upside for Costa here, though, is that he somewhat redeemed himself in the octagon. That was an epic fight he put on with Vettori, and the fact he was able to throw high-powered bombs with his hands and legs for all five rounds was remarkable. The Brazilian looked like he was toast in the cardio department after two minutes, but he kept finding those pockets of energy to make it to the final bell.

Costa is going to want to return to middleweight after this. He said so quite explicitly during his post-fight press conference. The UFC can absolutely not allow that to happen right now. UFC president Dana White said he had no intentions of allowing it, and I hope he sticks to his guns.

The best move is to pair Costa up with a top-10 name in the light heavyweight division and that can be the barometer of his future. If he’s not competitive and looks outsized or outmuscled (not sure how that would be possible), then maybe the conversation of a move back down can be revisited, so long as there are assurances of taking the proper steps.

If not, though, he days at middleweight have to be done because no future opponents should have to endure this type of nonsense from Costa again.

3. Alex Caceres keeps on streaking

No one saw this [autotag]Alex Caceres[/autotag] run coming in February 2019 when he had an 9-10 octagon record and was seemingly on the verge of being let go from the roster following a quick submission loss to Kron Gracie.

Fast forward to present day, though, and Caceres’ (19-12 MMA, 14-10 UFC) octagon record is now well above .500 as he rides a five-fight winning streak, capped off with a brilliant come-from-behind tapout of Seungwoo Choi.

It seemed Caceres bit off more than he could chew early in the featherweight fight with Choi. He was dropped with a hard punch and had problems finding his rhythm, but then showed why a veteran of his status only needs one opening.

Caceres took the back of Choi and got the finish in a slick sequence, showing once again that the book is far from written on his career. How far can he take it? It’s hard to know. A pessimist could argue Caceres’ winning streak consists of non-elites at 145 pounds, but he can only beat the guys in front of him. After doing so five straight times, he deserves a ranked foe.

Alex Caceres

4. Randa Markos saves her spot

By all indications, [autotag]Randa Markos[/autotag] was fighting for her UFC career when she stepped into the octagon with Livinha Souza on a four-fight losing skid. She extended her stay, however, with a hard-earned unanimous decision win in a strawweight fight in which she was the slight betting underdog.

Markos (11-11-1 MMA, 7-11-1 UFC) came into the UFC off “The Ultimate Fighter 20” where she significantly overachieved in the eyes of many by making it to the semifinal round. She’s extended her shelf life with the promotion for nearly seven years since then, fighting a record-tying 18 times at 115 pounds. There’s been more downs than ups for Markos in recent years, and that placed a lot of pressure on her coming into this fight.

The Canadian was presented with a chance to fold early in the first round, too, when Souza (14-4 MMA, 3-3 UFC) got her in a choke. In other fights she may have succumbed to that moment, but instead Markos pushed through and took over as the bout wore on to get the win on the scorecards.

At 35 years old, it might be too late for Markos to ever turn into a title contender. She’s a serviceable veteran for the division, though, and it’s probably best that she was able to earn himself more opportunities with this performance.

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