Marvin Vettori remains defiant that middleweight champion Israel Adesanya is not better than him, despite now having lost twice to ‘The Last Stylebender.’
“He was very smart in there and he fought a very smart fight,” Vettori told MMAJunkie.com. “With that being said, he wasn’t better. He wasn’t better at all in general. He wasn’t more skilled. He didn’t have more cardio. He didn’t have more anything, really. He was smart. He knew he was a champion. He didn’t really want to engage with me in a lot of things. Exchanges in general. One thing he was good at, he was able to play the crowd and kind of like almost be his own cornering in a sense. He had his own cornering, obviously, but he also had his like, he was his own corner. He was able to see the situation a little bit more from outside, from a third eye, almost.
“I did I mistake I think that maybe it was because it was the first time in front of the crowd for a while, or for a number of reasons. But with that being said, he used that to his advantage. Meanwhile, I didn’t use it or almost I let it played against me because I had like blinders on. That, most of the time would be the right thing to do. But in a situation like this it’s not. Especially when you’re fighting for a title.”
Regardless, after coming up short two times in a row against the champ, Vettori has a lot of work ahead of him to prove that he’s worthy of a trilogy fight, and that will begin with taking on another former title contender Paulo Costa later this month at UFC Fight Night 196 on October 23rd.
As for Adesanya, his next fight looks like another rematch, this time against former champ Robert Whittaker, though the exact timing of their showdown has still to be decided at this stage.
