COSTA MESA, Calif. – Marvin Vettori thinks a trilogy bout with UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya is inevitable.
Vettori (18-5-1 MMA, 8-3-1 UFC) lost two decisions to Adesanya, one of them for the middleweight title at UFC 263 last June. The Italian fighter has since rebounded with a win over former title challenger Paulo Costa and is looking to get another shot at the belt by beating ex-champ Robert Whittaker on Sept. 3 in Paris.
Adesanya (22-1 MMA, 11-1 UFC) defends his title against Jared Cannonier this Saturday at UFC 276, and Vettori thinks “The Last Stylebender” will walk out victorious.
“Cannonier would just have to not buy into any bullsh*t and just walk him down and land big shots, but Adesanya is game in that sense,” Vettori told MMA Junkie. “He’s been in there with a lot of big punchers and if he finds a hole, it’ll be a hard day for Cannonier. Eventually I want to beat them both, so it’s OK, we’ll see. I think Adesanya will come out with the win, though.”
Although he’s down 0-2, Vettori insists that he will get another shot at Adesanya at some point and finally beat him.
“It will happen no matter what,” Vettori said. “I’ll get my wins against Adesanya before I’m over with MMA unless he walks away before, but I feel like I’m the only real challenge to him, and every time I do fight him – he has the win in the last fight, but (I) came out unscathed, couldn’t really hurt me, not one single time. It was a lack of experience on my side, but yeah, for sure I want my win against him.”
He continued, “A lot of people say if Cannonier wins, then you get a shot because if Israel wins not many people want to see a third fight, but to be honest, if I go out and just demolish Whittaker then I feel like the hype train is gonna be hot again, and they’ll want to see it again, and that’s what I’m looking forward to do because like I said, it’s gonna be Vettori 3.0.”
