Israel Adesanya and Marvin Vettori at their 2018 weigh-ins (MMA Fighting)
Israel Adesanya takes on Marvin Vettori in the main event of UFC 263, this weekend
Israel Adesanya will be looking forward to successfully defending his middleweight title for the third successive time, when he faces ‘The Italian Dream’ in a rematch at UFC 263.
The fight will be headlining a stacked card, which is set to take place at the Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona.
The pair first met at UFC on Fox: Poirier vs Gaethje in April 2018, and Adesanya managed to scrape through with a split decision victory. Hence, this has been a rematch, three years in the making.
With just a few days left until the fight, Adesanya opened up about how much Vettori has improved since his last fight.
Adesanya hinted that most of the opponents Vettori has fought since their last fight have been nobodies.
Here is what the ‘Last Stylebender’ told Helen Yee:
“He’s improved about 10% more, but nothing substantial enough…Since we last fought, look at his run, look at my run. I can mention two guys he’s fought that I actually know of. You can mention every single person I fought, because we’re not the same, we’re on two different lanes.”
Adesanya and Vettori faced off in 2018, when they were not much known in the UFC. It was only Adesanya’s second fight in the UFC.
After going toe-to-toe for three rounds, Adesanya won via. split decision. The three judges scored the contest 29-28, 29-28, 28-29 in favour of Adesanya( 2 judges) Only referee Chris Lee’s scores read 28-29 (in favour of Vettori)
However, Adesanya clearly landed more strikes than the Italian. The one thing Vettori could probably argue in his favour is the ground-control he had after executing a successful takedown.
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