Rafael Cordeiro Expects Marvin Vettori to Pressure Paulo Costa at UFC Fight Night 196

The rivalry between UFC Night 196 main event headliners Marvin Vettori and Paulo Costa extends years back beyond the fighters to members of their respective camps.

King’s MMA head coach Rafael Cordeiro, who trains Vettori, recalled the old Vale Tudo days when he and Costa’s manager, Wallid Ismail, were big rivals. At the time, Cordeiro was part of the Chute Boxe team, while Ismail represented Carlson Gracie. Cordeiro said the he and Ismael both agreed that the level of respect in combat sports was different back then.

“Actually, this fight started when Wallid called me a few months ago to set it up, and I told him that was the fight to be made,” Cordeiro said. “It was funny that during the conversation we commented that today we live in a totally different reality from when we grew up, where opponents are not enemies and we respect each other a lot. But we both agreed on one point, if ‘Borrachinha’ and Vettori understand what our generation lived in the past, it´s gonna be a war.”

“Both Borrachinha and Vettori are on the top of the division, and they are both competing to see who is going to get the throne from Israel [Adesanya]. I have no doubt it´s gonna be a great fight.”

Cordeiro didn’t offer specific details regarding Vettori’s game plan but he did provide some insight into the middleweight bout.

“We extensively studied the way Costa behaves and walks in the Octagon, and we are going to use an approach he hasn’t seen before. Marvin has a great game plan for the fight,” he said. “’Borrachinha’ has an impressive offensive game, let's see how he behaves when he is pressured back. The fact is that both know that a great performance puts them closer to another title shot, which means it will be a very interesting fight for the fans.”