“I love Marvin” – Kamaru Usman shares prediction for Israel Adesanya vs Marvin Vettori

Published by

4 years ago

Kamaru Usman defeated Jorge Masvidal at UFC 261 (Twitter)

The Nigerian Nightmare has given his prediction for the upcoming title bout at UFC 263 -Israel Adesanya vs Marvin Vettori

Adesanya and Vettori will be fighting it out in the main event of UFC 263. The undisputed king of the middleweight, Izzy, will be going into his third middleweight title defense, against the Italian Dream.

The pair have already met once back in April 2018, UFC on Fox: Poirier vs Gaethje. Vettori gave Adesanya a run for his money as he lost via. a narrow split decision.

Since then both the fighters are unbeaten in the middleweight division. But, their paths have been completely different.

Israel Adesanya kicks Paulo Costa in their middleweight championship bout during UFC 253. (Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)

While Vettori defeated middleweights who were ranked predominantly between number 5 and number 15, Adesanya very quickly went on to become the middleweight champion.

However, The Italian Dream has worked his way back and is just one step away from greatness.

Elsewhere, UFC Welterweight Kamaru Usman was asked to give his prediction for the UFC 263 headliner, in an interview with ESPN’s Brett Okamoto.

Usman revealed that he was backing his fellow Nigerian Izzy to win, though he loved Vettori as well.

Usman was quoted as saying:

“I am 100% behind Izzy on that. I think Izzy can pull it off, I love Marvin as well, I think Izzy can pull that one out. And, he’s done it before. And, I think he can, I think he will.”

Kamaru Usman talks about moving to the middleweight division

There have been lots of talks about Usman moving to the next weight class – the middleweight division. The talks have been rife since he has dismantled almost everyone in the welterweight division.

He addressed this in the same interview with Brett Okamoto. Usman informed Okamoto that he would move to the MW division and challenge for the belt only if his fellow African brother Izzy does not stand in his path.

Kamaru Usman in action against Colby Covington. (Getty)

And since he believed that Izzy would see off Vettori, he revealed that he would closely be watching how Leon Edwards vs Nate Diaz at UFC 263, plays out.

Usman said: