Marvin Vettori is an interesting case in the UFC’s middleweight division. Just a couple of years ago, in April 2018, he went up against a quickly rising star in Israel Adesanya. “The Last Stylebender” was a recent transplant from kickboxing, who had won his octagon debut just months earlier.
Vettori (14-4-1) lost a split decision. It was the closest fight of Adesanya’s UFC career to date. In hindsight, that loss doesn’t seem so bad: Israel Adesanya now reigns as the UFC middleweight champion.
Vettori has fought just twice since that time. Both unanimous decision wins, over Andrew Sanchez and Cezar Ferreira. Now, he returns at UFC Jacksonville, a rare mid-week show, going down Wednesday in the empty Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena. The same venue in which UFC 249 was held.
“I didn’t really care about the opponent that much, I just wanted to fight. I’ve been trying to catch a fight for five months now,” Vettori told reporters including Cageside Press at the event’s virtual media day.
“It’s crazy man. This middleweight division, especially every middleweight with a number next to their name, they’re pretty peek-y, they’re not wild like I am,” he’d go on to say. In short, the ranked fighters are hiding.
Later, asked about the path back to Adesanya, Vettori said that “I know that after this fight, I’m confident they will give be a ranked opponent. I know they tried to schedule me with some ranked opponents before, but they didn’t accept.”
While not willing to name names, Vettori feels that some of those opponents could have taken the fight, regardless of the current situation globally. The excuses seemed to be the lack of a full camp, for one. And that he’s not ranked himself. “All these middleweights with a number next to their name, I don’t want to be rude, but they’re kind of p*ssies. A lot of them are. They’re playing games. But after this, I don’t think they’ll be able to hide anymore.”
Either way, Vettori just wanted to fight. “I’m on a mission. I don’t take this lightly,” he stated. There’s no taking time off to do other things. “This is all I do. That’s why I’m like ‘man, if I get off, and they’re going to reschedule me in maybe June, July, that’s half the year.'”
Vettori was originally scheduled to fight at UFC London back in March. It’s taken til May to actually compete. “It hasn’t been easy. I don’t think there’s been anyone that, from the London card— there’s a lot of people that have been rescheduled from the April cards, but not from the March cards. Most of the people from the March cards kind of gave up. They’re like ‘alright, f*ck it, I’m just going to fight another time.’ There’s not a lot of people from the March cards still eager to fight all the way to May.”
Vettori, however, stayed on his manager to find him a fight — and the UFC obliged.
“Fighters are not just in the cage. Fighters are in life. It’s fighting through adversity, overcoming challenges. It’s in life before in the cage,” said Vettori.
Speaking to challenges outside the cage, without going into details, Vettori added that it’s not easy to face them. Because “they come in very different forms, and sneaky forms most of the time. But I’m happy I’ve overcome all of them, and I’m here more ready than ever. I’m really motivated for this fight.”
Probably even more so, after opponent Karl Roberson missed weight for the bout Tuesday morning. Vettori could be overheard at the face-off, calling him broken. Whether he breaks in the octagon is another matter — we’ll find out Wednesday night.
