UFC middleweight Marvin Vettori makes his return to the octagon following a layoff that lasted over a year to face Roman Dolidze at UFC Vegas 104 on Saturday night.
It was a long layoff, one made worse by an injury, but it wasn’t all bad for Vettori.
“Been in Miami. Big booty Latinas. That’s what I’ve been up to,” Vettori told reporters with a smile on Wednesday.
“So good to be back to be honest. Like f*ck forgive it for granted, but that’s what we signed up for. We love it, at least I do, and I missed it dearly.”
Vettori (19-6-1) lost his last fight out, a main event bout with Jared Cannonier in 2023, and following the bout he decided to take some time away from fighting.
“After my last fight I felt I needed to take a little bit of time. So then I changed the gym, I found ATT (American Top Team), loved it. Started getting ready for another fight and then got injured. Bit of time off changing gym, and then I got injured, and this took me basically almost a year. Three months I thought I could recover with PT and all. Then I actually made it worse,” he said.
“Ended up getting surgery (in) June, and shoot it’s been 9 months since.”
Vettori had to withdraw from a scheduled bout with Brendan Allen in April 2024 due to the injury which took him about a year to fully recover from.
“I smashed my shoulder. My shoulder came out, f*cking destroyed my rotator cuff, and labrum a bit. Even my bicep. Was (a) heavy surgery,” he said.
The rematch is two years in the making having already beaten Dolidze at UFC 286 in 2023, but it’s a rematch with a fighter who has evolved in that time.
“Different guy, I fought him already, so yes and no. It is what it is,” he said.
Watch the entire media day scrum with Marvin Vettori above. He takes on Roman Dolidze at UFC Vegas 104 on Saturday night.
