Marvin Vettori thinks Luke Rockhold will suffer another knockout loss in his return.
Rockhold (16-5 MMA, 6-4 UFC) is expected to face Paulo Costa (13-2 MMA, 5-2 UFC) on Aug. 20 in what will be his first fight since July 2019.
The former middleweight champion has been knocked out in his past three octagon losses and Vettori (18-4-1 MMA, 8-3-1 UFC) sees the same fate for him when he takes on Brazilian powerhouse Costa.
“I see Luke Rockhold losing the few brain cells that he has left in his brain and just going to sleep badly for a few minutes,” Vettori said in an interview with Helen Yee. “They’re two guys that their stock is not high right now, so makes sense that they fight each other.”
Vettori is coming off a unanimous decision win over Costa in this past October’s UFC Fight Night 196 headliner, a bout that took place at 205 pounds after Costa struggled to make the middleweight limit. Although UFC president Dana White urged Costa to move up a weight class, the former title challenger will stay at middleweight and Vettori thinks Costa will make the contracted weight this time.
“I knew some time would have went by and he would have really promised them that he would have done 185 again and he would have took it seriously and all that, they might have given him another chance – and that’s what they did,” Vettori said.
“But that’s his business at the end of the day. I’ve heard stories that he goes up to 250, 245, so he has to take a lot of time to make 185. He did it before and I believe if he takes it seriously, he’s going to do it again. So I think he’s going to do it this time. The last time with me, everything was pretty crazy – but whatever. I took the fight, I made it happen, and I beat him.”
Marvin Vettori sees Luke Rockhold ‘losing the few brain cells that he has left’ against Paulo Costa
