Marvin Vettori is still not convinced that Israel Adesanya is the best middleweight in the world.
In Israel Adesanya’s second fight in the UFC, he earned a split-decision victory over an unranked Marvin Vettori. Two years later, and Israel Adesanya is the reigning, undisputed middleweight champion and Marvin Vettori is swiftly picking up steam as the #5-ranked contender. Vettori has been open about wanting a rematch with Adesanya and believing that he was the rightful winner of their first bout. The only problem for Vettori’s rematch efforts is that Adesanya is looking to move up a division, at least temporarily, and challenge Jan Blachowicz for the UFC light heavyweight championship. Marvin Vettori believes that the correct legacy move would be to fight him instead of moving up to another division.
“I think that (Adesanya) should fight the next guy in line for sure,” Vettori told MMA Fighting recently. “If the UFC wants that fight, they can be 100 percent sure I’m going to answer that call. I feel like he wants to chase that greatness status, which in a sense is a little bit understandable, but he has to prove a lot of things first. One of the things he has to prove is that he’s the best. To do that, he has to fight me. Wherever he goes.”
Marvin Vettori went on to theorize that Adesanya is only chasing a fight with Jan Blachowicz because it is a better matchup for him and with a much smaller risk to his legacy. Vettori believes that should Adesanya defeat him next instead, that would be much more meaningful, particularly since Adesanya’s other big wins in the division recently all failed to impress.
“He beat [Robert] Whittaker but I feel like Whittaker that time did not perform the way he should have,” Vettori said. “His fight with Yoel [Romero] was horrible and in a sense I even thought he lost. His last fight, [Paulo] Costa beat himself.”
Marvin Vettori may already have his next opponent lined up if the UFC matchmaker sact on his public agreement with Darren Till to fight. As for Israel Adesanya, all signs point to his bout with Jan Blachowicz moving forward despite Vettori’s objections.
What are your thoughts on Marvin Vettori’s comments that Israel Adesanya must defeat him to prove he’s the best?
