Marvin Vettori can’t seem to draw a ranked opponent.
Vettori (15-3-1 MMA, 5-2-1 UFC), who’s won three fights in a row, has been chomping at the bit to take on somebody in the UFC’s top 15 middleweight rankings, but it appears no one is willing to face him.
He called out former champion Chris Weidman, who recently snapped his two-fight losing skid with a unanimous decision win over Omari Akhmedov at UFC on ESPN+ 32.
Weidman (15-5 MMA, 11-5 UFC) scoffed at Vettori’s callout, but Vettori sees it as a matchup that’s beneficial for both men at this point in their careers.
“I saw his last performance. He finally got a win, and he’s really picking and choosing opponents,” Vettori told MMA Junkie. “He’s been hiding already. I mean, this thing is whack. How is a former champ with such a reputation coming back, had a weak win – I call it weak because it wasn’t a very dominant performance at all. It was sloppy, he lost the second round bad.”
Vettori continued, “Weidman won this fight, and he’s kind of relevant again, and I want to fight him. I mean, he’s a former champ. I want my name on his record. I think this fight makes a lot of sense, and if I win, I go up in the rankings. If he wins, he goes way up in the rankings, and it makes sense for both of us. I’m coming off three dominant wins, and he’s coming off five stoppage losses in is last seven fights, and I want his name on my record. I think I would stop him before the end of the fight.”
Vettori has expressed interest in fighting the likes of Jack Hermansson, Derek Brunson, Yoel Romero, and Edmen Shahbazyan. And while the UFC is on board to meet his requests, Vettori is having a hard time getting anyone to answer his call.
“I basically called out anybody in the top 15 and accepted to fight anybody,” Vettori said. “The UFC promised me a guy in the top 15 before my last fight. I told them I’m gonna beat this guy in a very dominant fashion, and then I want a top-15 guy. They said, ‘Yes, you deserve it. You’ll have it.” So now I want a top-15 guy, and that’s one thing they always told me: ‘Oh, you never beat someone in the top 15.’ Guess what? Nobody accepts.” …
“It’s either everybody gets a win, and he wants to fight somebody higher, or somebody’s not very active or somebody’s injured. There’s always something. Somebody has an excuse, somebody’s playing a game, ‘Oh I want to fight later.’ To be honest, I really want this Chris Weidman fight to happen, and it makes a lot of sense, and I hope it will happen.”
Frustrated he can’t land ranked opponent, Marvin Vettori wants Chris Weidman on his record
