Marvin Vettori has declared that he is entirely over long-time rival Israel Adesanya. Ahead of his UFC Fight Night showdown against former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker, the Italian-born fighter made some comments regarding the reigning titleholder ‘The Last Stylebender.’
In the past five years, the only two losses on the record of ‘The Italian Dream’ have been at the hands of Adesanya. Most recently was in a title bid in June of 2021. Despite the two losses against the Nigerian-Kiwi fighter, Vettori is still confident that he will defeat Adesanya at some point in his career.
At the pre-fight press conference ahead of this Saturday’s fight card, the 28-year-old Italian explained:
“Adesanya, it’s over, man. Nothing excited me about that guy. Of course, I’ll get my win against him before I’m done with all this. Yeah man, the things that he can do best, now it’s painting his nails.”
Marvin Vettori was then asked if he was a fan of Adesany’a painted nails, and he said:
“Oh hell no man, come on. This whole way gotta change, man. This whole way we’re going, it’s not good.”
On this weekend’s UFC Paris fight card, Marvil Vettori is booked to face Australia’s Whittaker in the co-main event position. This is a major challenge for the Italian fighter as the former world champion ‘The Reaper’ holds impressive wins over fighters such as Kelvin Gastelum, Yoel Romero, and ‘Jacare’ Ronaldo Souza, among others.
Marvin Vettori picks Pereira over Adesnaya
Marvin Vettori will be looking to earn an emphatic victory and then fight next for the middleweight title against the winner of either Israel Adesanya or Alex Pereira. Adesanya will be looking to defend his world championship against the former GLORY Kickboxing world champion at UFC 281 later this year.
‘The Italian Dream’ already has his pick ready ahead of the UFC title fight later this year. Between Adesanya and Brazil’s ‘Poatan,’ Vettori chose the challenger over the champion. In the press conference, he said:
“I want Pereira to just because it excites me more as the next challenger eventually. And I think that will happen. Because after this I’m going to establish myself as the number one contender. I mean, what’s left for me? I’ve pretty much fought everybody … I definitely like more Pereira in the way he carries himself, the way he goes about fighting. Not much bullsh*t. Just a straight bad mother*cker kind of thing.
See the full press conference featuring Marvin Vettori below:
