“He is solid” – Marvin Vettori predicts his UFC 263 title fight against Israel Adesanya

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3 years ago

Marvin Vettori of Italy poses on the scale during the UFC Fight Night weigh-in at UFC APEX on December 04, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)

‘The Italian Dream’ Marvin Vettori shared his prediction for his upcoming title fight against Israel Adesanya

Vettori and Adesanya will be running back their April 2018 UFC encounter at UFC 263, in a couple of weeks. The pair were nobodies back then, now they are among the best in the middleweight division.

The last time Vettori and Adesanya fought, the ‘Last Stylebender’ narrowly won via. split decision. Just a year later Adesanya went on to become the middleweight champion.

Israel Adesanya waits during his decision win over Yoel Romero to retain the middleweight title at T-Mobile Arena on March 07, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

Vettori, on the other hand, has slowly climbed the rungs of the middleweight ladder ever since that loss. In fact he has never lost since that Izzy fight.

In a recent interview with Brett Okamoto of ESPN, Vettori shed some light on how the fight would pan out. While he did say that he was aiming for a finish, he couldn’t help himself acknowledging Adesanya’s ‘slippery as an eel’ attribute.

Vettori told Okamoto:

“I wanna finish this guy man. I really wanna finish this guy, Israel. Like, leave no doubts. And, I think I can. But if not, he is solid, he is solid in his way of fighting. He’s slippery, he is able to get away from positions. But if not, I’ll just beat him every round. I can’t let any round be close, I’ll bring the fight for sure.”

Marvin Vettori is coming off a massive ground-heavy performance

One thing Adesanya seems to struggle against is a ground-heavy approach. The Last Stylebender tested murky waters when he decided to move up a weight class and challenge Jan Blachowicz for the light-heavyweight title.

Marvin Vettori of Italy celebrates after his submission victory over Karl Roberson in their middleweight fight during the UFC Fight Night event at UFC APEX on June 13, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)

Unfortunately, the Nigerian ended up being defeated for the first time, as he dominated on the ground by the Super Pole.

Now, Vettori has a very similar fighting approach to that of Blachowicz. It was typified during his last encounter against Kevin Holland in April. ‘The Italian Dream’ executed a staggering 11 takedowns (a middleweight record) on his way to a dominant unanimous decision victory.

He will now be looking forward to executing the same thing, come the 12th of June.