Mixed martial artist Chael Sonnen attends the UFC 170 event at the Mandalay Bay Events Center on February 22, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Marvin Vettori will be challenging for the middleweight title against Israel Adesanya at UFC 263
In just under three weeks Israel Adesanya will be defending his title against the hard-as-nails Marvin Vettori.
Their fight is set to headline UFC 263 at the Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona. Adesanya is coming off the first loss in his MMA career, albeit in a different weight class.
Having dominated the middleweight division to the fullest, Adesanya’s plans of becoming a double champ were foiled by light-heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259.
Vettori, on the other hand, has been on an incredible run of form. He has been on a five-match win streak ever since his last defeat. His opponent in his last defeat? Israel Adesanya! The pair first met at UFC on Fox: Poirier vs Gaethje, back in April 2018.
Adesanya won the fight. via a narrow split decision.
Former UFC fighter Chael Sonnen weighed in on, who between the two has improved since that night in April 2018.
Sonnen went on to reveal that both have improved vastly since their first fight but felt that Adesanya’s improvement was visible with each passing fight.
Sonnen said:
“‘Is Vettori better than he was then?’ Yes! ‘Why do I say that?’ Coz he told me and I believe him. Who would possibly know better than him himself. Is Adesanya better? Yes!…I can tell you distinctively from fight to fight, what he is doing different and what he is better at.”
Marvin Vettori has 22 professional MMA fights to his name. He has won 17 of them, losing 4 and drawing 1.
But has the ‘Italian Dream’ ever been knocked out in a fight? No! All four of his losses have come via. the judges’ decision. He hasn’t even been submitted before.
The tough Italian hardly receives a knockdown, and when he does, he either recovers quickly or takes the fight to the ground in a jiffy.
It will be a real of test character for Izzy, come the 12th of June.
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