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Marvin Vettori Loves Surprising People With His Skill Set
Vettori Aims To Prove Himself As MIddleweight's Number 1 Contender At UFC Fight Night: Gane vs Tuivasa Against Robert Whittaker
Few fighters in the last handful of years were forced to roll with the punches quite like Marvin Vettori.
While rebooked fights are the nature of the game, it seems like Vettori’s life is always built on a foundation of shifting sand. From flying to London only to fly back during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 or having bouts fall out less than 48 hours before fight day or, most recently, having an opponent show up unable to make weight and having to compete 20 pounds heavier than planned, “The Italian Dream” navigated plenty of nightmare scenarios in the last few years.
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All along the way, Vettori has gone with the flow the best he can, although his frustrations have naturally poured out, as well. He found himself in familiar circumstances when a scheduled fight with former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker was pushed from UFC 275 nearly three months later to UFC Fight Night: Gane vs Tuivasa in Paris when Whittaker sustained an injury. While Vettori is adept at channeling that aggression into his fights in the most positive ways, the 28-year-old believes he is maturing along the way.
“You never get used to it, but you get better with dealing with it, in a sense,” Vettori said. “I just got more time to get ready, and that's all right. I'm super ready. At the end of the day, I think it actually worked better for me to have more time. Like, ideally maybe I wanted to fight a little bit earlier, but it was tough. Looking backwards, I prefer the shape that I'm in now than the one that I would have been in June.”
Another way in which things worked out is this fight being Vettori’s first in Europe under the UFC banner.
Vettori described this fight week as the first time it has felt like “a real fight week” in the UFC because he is able to have his friends and family around him in the lead-up to September 3. Even though Vettori is always focused and particularly so as fight day approaches, it’s easy to see the positive and friendly vibe he has going with the group around him, whether he’s fulfilling media obligations or playing table tennis in the hotel.
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He mentioned he’ll have a sizeable group of friends and family in the crowd, 90 percent of which haven’t seen him compete in the Octagon. And while Vettori’s excitement is palpable, his priorities are well in order as he approaches one of his toughest tests to date.
“You’re never going to catch me slipping,” Vettori said. “It's a lifestyle. I'm never going to (just) do camp. I'm just always in shape. I'm always training, I'm always improving. And yeah man, this camp has been something special, to be honest. I'm really ready to f***ing go.”
Marvin Vettori Paving The Way For Italy | UFC Fight Night: Gane vs Tuivasa
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Marvin Vettori Paving The Way For Italy | UFC Fight Night: Gane vs Tuivasa
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Even though Vettori has lost two decisions to current middleweight champ Israel Adesanya, Whittaker represents the second-best test at 185 pounds. Whittaker most recently dropped a decision to Adesanya in their rematch at UFC 271 and is now in a peculiar position.
Beating the ANZAC stud isn’t an easy task, but Vettori believes he sees a little slippage in Whittaker’s motivation after obtaining middleweight gold more than five years ago and failing in his bid to regain the title, despite the close result.
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“I think he's one of those dudes that after winning the title, he kind of settled, to be honest,” Vettori said. “He's not the same. I think he got (some) energy after his last fight, even though it was a loss. I think he's going to think he can do it, but he's going to find out pretty fast that it's something deeper than just like a little burst. If you don't have that hunger, you don't have it. It's not gonna come just after a fight. If you're not in that mindset constantly, you’re not going to show in the fight, and I see it all the time in fights. I believe he's going to go down as one of the greats of the middleweight division, but it's my time now.”
In Whittaker’s interview with UFC.com, he was quite complimentary of Vettori, particularly of the Italian’s durability. Through 24 professional fights, Vettori hasn’t been finished, despite facing some of the most dangerous middleweights on the planet.
That said, Vettori believes his technical abilities are a little underrated, something that doesn’t necessarily bother him, but rather an assumption he likes to use to his advantage.
“People just think that I just can take anything and just walk forward, but I'm way more than that,” Vettori said. “This fight is going to that is going to show it. After this, they're going to be like, ‘This guy can take a truck right into his face, but, at the same time, it's technical and slick.’ They're going to see that.”
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In addition to the natural stakes this fight has in terms of the title picture in the middleweight division, Vettori feels like there’s even more to be had for his personal goal of seeing the Octagon touch down in Italy for the first time.
He believes this first fight in France is a big moment for European MMA, in general, as well as a crucial step toward making that Italian dream come true, and it’s something he’ll campaign heavily for after what he hopes is a successful night against Whittaker.
Robert Whittaker vs Marvin Vettori Preview | UFC Paris
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Robert Whittaker vs Marvin Vettori Preview | UFC Paris
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“You'll see me showing up to Dana White's house and be telling them, ‘We got to make an event in Italy,’” he said. “It can definitely be done in Italy, too. I'm super looking forward (to it), and I'm going to campaign hard for it. I've always said coming in the UFC, goals of mine (are), one, to bring the UFC to Italy. The second was to become the first Italian UFC champion. We’ve got to make them both happen.”
First thing on that agenda, however, is getting past Whittaker, whose only two losses in 13 middleweight bouts have come to Adesanya.
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Vettori believes he can’t just grind out a decision win. Instead, he hopes to make an emphatic statement over a former champion as he tries to build a hard-fought case for a second title shot. That road gets a little clearer if Alex Pereira dispatches of “The Last Stylebender” at UFC 281 in New York City, but if Adesanya defends his throne, Vettori won’t feel discouraged. It’s all part of his journey, and one marked by taking the hard, winding road over and over again until he manifests his dreams into reality.
“This fight is going to confirm me as a number one contender,” Vettori said. “After that, the only thing that is left is going to be another title shot and me becoming a champion, me getting that belt. I'm going to be right there, and I believe is another shot at the belt is going to be undeniable.”
UFC Fight Night: Gane vs Tuivasa took place on September 3, 2022, live from the Accor Arena in Paris, France. See the Final Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!
