HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. – Marvin Vettori thinks Israel Adesanya is trying to bait a reaction out of him by publicly targeting Darren Till for his next middleweight title defense.
After failing in his bid to become a dual-UFC champ, Adesanya (20-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) is expected to return to 185 pounds to put the belt on the line in his next fight. Both the champion and his coaches have said Till is the “frontrunner” in terms of the desired next opponent.
The hurdle, however, is that Till (18-3-1 MMA, 6-3-1 UFC) is scheduled to fight Vettori (16-4-1 MMA, 6-2-1 UFC) in the UFC on ABC 2 main event on April 10 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Adesanya has beaten Vettori before in a split decision at UFC on FOX 29 in April 2018, and there’s been a good deal of words between the two sides in the years since.
Vettori thinks Adesanya is intentionally excluding him from the conversation as means of provoking him.
“He’s doing it on purpose,” Vettori told MMA Junkie. “He’s definitely doing it on purpose. He wants Till to win, and he’s trying to get on my nerves. I can see this thing miles away. He knows what’s going to happen. Darren Till is a good fighter. I’m not going to underestimate him. My attention is 100 percent on him, and he’s dangerous, and I have to put my whole attention on him. But I’m confident that my next fight and his next fight will be him, and Israel’s next fight will be me.”
Vettori has been pushing hard to get a second crack at Adesanya since the moment their first fight ended. He’s stood strong in his belief that the split decision at UFC on FOX 29 should’ve gone his way, and up until recently, it was the most competitive fight Adesanya had experienced during his UFC career.
Adesanya’s undefeated run recently came to an end, though, when he unsuccessfully moved up to light heavyweight to try to dethrone champion Jan Blachowicz. His champ-champ attempt ended in a unanimous decision loss to Blachowicz, and now Adesanya will come back down in weight.
Vettori said he was pleased to see Adesanya fall short of becoming a two-division champ, and if he gets his title shot after beating Till, he intends to make “The Last Stylebender” a no-division champ.
“I don’t like the guy, so I didn’t want any good for him,” Vettori said. “I think the winner of that fight is the guy who deserved to win, and that’s all that matters to me. I think Jan was better, and I think a lot of the thing Jan predicted about that fight, it happened. I’m happy the judges judged it the right way. I think Jan was really good defensively, and he shut down Israel’s game and he did a great job.
“Now I’m a little disappointed. Not that I care, but sometimes I see these things and I wouldn’t like that to happen to me. The media are over Israel again, and no one talks about Jan, and Jan is the current champ and beat a guy that was the champ at middleweight to come up and take his belt. … Jan blocked his way from taking the light heavyweight belt. I’m going to take the middleweight belt and once and for all the hype train will be derailed.”
Although Vettori has a tough fight in front of him with Till, he’s very confident he will get the victory and extend his winning streak to five fights. He may have to compete with the winner of the April 17 main event between Robert Whittaker and Kelvin Gastelum for the next title opportunity, and that’s why Vettori is putting high expectations on himself to not only win, but do it with style points.
“My next fight has to be a statement,” Vettori said. “I have to go out there and put a really dominant performance because that’s what’s going to make sure that nobody takes away my next title shot. I’m not going to go out just trying to steal the rounds and edge a 49-48. That’s definitely not the gameplan. I’m going to go out and show that I’m on a different level. I’m not scared of saying it and putting the pressure on me to prove I can do it. I know it. I’m ready, and I’m going to show it.”
To see the full interview with Vettori, check out the video below.
Marvin Vettori: Israel Adesanya ‘trying to get on my nerves,’ will lose all hype in rematch
