Marvin Vettori

Following Israel Adesanya’s disappointing bout with Yoel Romero earlier this month at UFC 248, Marvin Vettori has taken the opportunity to blast the middleweight champ for his performance. In addition, the Italian fighter’s reminding people that he pushed “The Last Stylebender” to his limits, when they battled back in 2018.

Vettori wants another go with Adesanya

Since Adesanya worked his way to a decision win over Romero on March 7th, there’s been discussion on how the lackluster fight might impact the star’s legacy and profile. Although the consensus seems to be that Romero’s counter striking approach was largely responsible for the forgettable fight, Adesanya’s taken some heat for his performance too. The champ was unable to deliver the decisive win he had said would take place.

Well, what’s been lost somewhat in the mix is that in April, 2018, Vettori nearly defeated Adesanya at UFC on FOX 29. In fact, one of the three judges awarded the fight for Vettori, over Adesanya. As a result, while talking to MMA Junkie recently, “The Italian Dream” had this to say.

“People can say whatever they want about my fight,” Vettori said. “I have my opinions. He has his opinions. People have their opinions, … but whoever won that fight, and the judges – one gave it to me, two gave it to him – whoever, even him, is he happy with what happened in that fight? Did it really go down like it was supposed to go down? Did anybody really come out on top, like saying, ‘I beat the other guy,’?

“If anything, he came out more beat up than me from that fight.”

Now, all signs point to Adesanya being extremely competitive. So, you would think he would love another opportunity to face Vettori to erase any doubts about the victory. But, since Vettori isn’t ranked in the top 15, it’s hard to imagine the two running it back anytime soon.

Vettori says Adesanya looked “scared” against Romero

And what was Vettori’s take on the Adesanya – Romero fight? And the champ’s performance? While discussing the widely panned bout, Vettori said this.

“From Adesanya, I’m seeing just a scared guy, honestly – like, he didn’t want to take risks, and I’ll tell you why: Because Romero was being very good of not reacting to his feints and being very unpredictable, which he always is, but even more, and doing all this weird (expletive), so Adesanya wouldn’t have a lot to build on,” Vettori said. “Even if it looks like he’s a striker and he does all this weird (expletive), he plays it safe a lot of times, and people fall for this (expletive). But I’ve seen it.

“When he has to take some risks there, because Romero was being good at not reacting and stuff, he’s been scared to go fight. He got hit a couple times, and he just acted like a b*tch the whole time, and so that showed me his true colors…”

It will be interesting to see if these comments get back to Adesanya, and if they prompt a response. If you’re wondering, since Vettori lost to Adesanya, he’s recorded consecutive decision wins over Andrew Sanchez and Cezar Ferreira.

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