Marvin Vettori has changed his mind — he wants Israel Adesanya next.
Vettori earned the biggest win of his career following a unanimous decision win over Jack Hermansson in their UFC Vegas 16 war last night.
As a result, Vettori inserted himself into title contention as he called for a fight with recent title challenger Paulo Costa in his post-fight interview.
However, after thinking on it, the Italian believes given the state of the top five, he may as well campaign for a rematch with Adesanya straight away.
“To be honest with you, before I called out ‘Borrachinha’ (Paulo Costa), but f*ck ‘Borrachinha,’ he just came out of a crazy loss,” Vettori said at the post-fight press conference. “Why would I even fight him? I want to go straight to the title, man. I’ll be really honest. I like the fight, but I feel top five, there’s no opposition. There’s no real opposition.
“[Jared] Cannonier just lost. Darren Till, I don’t know, I don’t even think he’s top five. ‘Borrachinha’ just lost brutally and who else is there? Jack was No. 4. [Robert] Whittaker wants to just enjoy Christmas with his kids, which I don’t blame him, but it doesn’t seem like he really wants to fight for the title.”
Vettori: Adesanya Is Full Of Sh*t
Vettori and Adesanya first fought in 2018 in a competitive fight that saw the latter come out on top as he earned the split decision victory.
Adesanya would go on to win the middleweight title since and notably claimed he didn’t think he would ever fight Vettori again.
To that, Vettori responded.
“Israel is full of sh*t,” Vettori said. “He was like, ‘oh I don’t think I will ever see Marvin again, he will never make it to the title.’ Well guess what motherf**ker? I’m here.
“He thinks he has it all figured out. He’s got nothing figured out. I know his true colors. I met him a few times. I fought him. I know his true colors. I want that fight.”
For now, Adesanya is primed to move up and challenge Jan Blachowicz for the light heavyweight title. However, Vettori doesn’t believe he deserves it and thinks Glover Teixeira should get the fight.
“He’s not. Glover Teixeira deserves that fight,” Vettori added. “He shouldn’t fight for the light heavyweight title. Is it official? So I think Glover Teixeira’s going to get that fight.”
Perhaps, Teixeira’s win over Thiago Santos last month along with Vettori’s performance could lead to Adesanya staying at middleweight for now — leading to a rematch which is certainly much more enticing now.
