Marvin Vettori thinks it’s time to get an opponent with number next to his name.
The Italian middleweight believes a win at Wednesday’s UFC on ESPN+ 29 event in Jacksonville, Fla. will get him ranked opposition for his next UFC bout. Vettori (14-3-1 MMA, 4-2-1 UFC), who takes on Karl Roberson in three-round contest in the main card of the event, said bouts with ranked opposition were in the works but the global pandemic got in the way.
“I know that after this fight I’m confident they will give me a ranked opponent,” Vettori said during a virtual media day promoting the event. “I think they tried to schedule me with a ranked opponent before, but they all didn’t accept. I don’t want to name names, I don’t think it’s right, but also because they blamed the situation that they’re in. It’s kind of like you can’t talk too much sh*t about it because they kind of have a point. But I think everybody could prepare if you go the extra mile. You just have to go the extra mile and you just have to find ways to train, be after people, and set up trainings in different ways, but you can get ready if you want to get ready.
“So it is what it is, but they did try to schedule me against top guys, but they were like, ‘Oh no I need a full camp to fight Marvin. Oh no, I can’t train, this and that,’ but that’s a bunch of excuses. Like I said, all these middleweights with a number next to their names they’re all kind of pussies. A lot of them are playing games, but after this they won’t be able to hide anymore and I will get my chance.”
Vettori is on a two-fight wining streak, with his last defeat coming to current UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya via decision.
A the end of the day, the Kings MMA product is just happy to be getting a fight during the pandemic, as two previous bookings fell due to cancelled events by the restrictions and bans for COVID-19.
“I didn’t want to let myself off the hook because I’m on a mission,” Vettori said. “I don’t take this lightly like. ‘Ok, I’m going to fight. Ok, I’m going to make some money, I’m gong to take my time off here.’ This is all I do, that’s why I was like If I get off they’re going to reschedule me for June or July and I’m going to throw away half of the year and I’m just losing time.
“I’m trying to catch those top guys and the belt that’s one of the reasons why I never gave up trying to catch a fight. But yeah, it could be frustrating but at the same time, we have to deal with what we can control.”
Even for Vettori, it was rough to train and prepare for a professional fight in this current climate. Although things weren’t normal and he had two previous booking fall through, Vettori feels prepared for Wednesday night.
“As professional, and I’ve been in this game for a little bit, you have to feel your body and take the right approach to training and know that if you stay on the whole time, you’ll burn out – that’s a fact,” Vettori said. “You can’t get off the hook because then you’ll throw away all the preparation, so yeah, you have to manage that and make adjustments through out, and take the off time that we needed to and make sure we peeked for Wednesday. I think we did a good job for that.”
Marvin Vettori confident he'll get ranked opponent with win over Karl Roberson
