Marvin Vettori is a bit of a strange character, but he would never drink the night before a title fight.
Vettori is set to face off against Paulo Costa, in what will be the first fight for both men since they lost in title fights with champ Israel Adesanya. While the Italian Stallion himself lost a decision that he thought he won, Costa blamed his TKO defeat on using a bottle of wine to cure his insomnia the night before.
Speaking in an interview with ESPN ahead of the fight, Vettori expressed how insane this wine excuse was from Costa. In fact, he stated that at first, he did not believe that this was really what happened, simply because of how nonsensical it appeared to him.
“I mean, at the beginning, I thought it was an excuse. Then actually, it seems like it actually happened. So by saying that, it’s actually even more shocking because I’m like, you can’t sleep and that’s what you’re thinking of? ‘I’m gonna drink a bottle of wine’? Like, that is shocking. An athlete of this level thinking about drinking a bottle of [expletive] wine the day before a fight? You’re crazy. It don’t make no [expletive] sense.”
That being said, now that Marvin Vettori believes the wine story, that does not clear up all the questions he has. In fact, he has trouble understanding the logic behind using alcohol to sleep on the eve of the biggest night of one’s life, saying that it was a sign of mental weakness.
“That shows you don’t know your mind that well. You don’t know how to get yourself in a good spot…That actually gave me a lot of confidence, but I don’t want to build on that too much because I still expect the best ouf of him. But how do you even think about drinking a bottle of wine the night before a title fight?”
Marvin Vettori also added that he feels like there should not have been any lingering effects from the wine by the time fight time came around. While that is not an unfair point, that is not exactly indicative of how hangovers work, especially if Paulo Costa drank the entire bottle as he said.
Either way, hopefully Costa does not make the same mistake twice, and keeps the bottle away before he fights Vettori this weekend. This is a crucial fight for both men to stay relevant in the title picture, so fans can only hope for the best.
Check out the full interview with Vettori below:
