"He doesn't even say my name" - Marvin Vettori reveals why Israel Adesanya wants to fight Darren Till over him [Exclusive]
Marvin Vettori has revealed why he believes Israel Adesanya wants to fight Darren Till ahead of him.
Vettori was scheduled to lock horns with Till this weekend in a blockbuster main event. Instead, he’ll be going up against Kevin Holland after Till was forced to withdraw due to suffering a broken collarbone. Many questioned whether or not the UFC would be able to find Vettori a fight on short notice, but Holland was happy to step up to the plate.
Vettori wants revenge
The expectation if Vettori won decisively was that he could be next in line to fight Israel Adesanya in a rematch for the UFC middleweight title. Alas, that’s unlikely to happen even if he does beat Holland, and he’ll now have to wait and see how the rest of the division pans out in the months to come.
During an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda, Vettori spoke about his split decision loss to Adesanya back in April 2018 and whether or not he believes they’ll meet again.
“I know for a fact we’re gonna meet again - but this guy doesn’t want it. He doesn’t even say my name. He wanted Darren Till so bad, just because he knows he’s a way better match-up for him. So, yeah it will happen man. I think I’m next in line to be honest. Listen, I’m focused completely on this guy right now and I don’t care about after. I’ll worry about that after [this fight].”
Vettori also went on to speak about how he feels about representing Italian mixed martial arts at the elite level as his rise to prominence at 185 pounds continues:
“It’s an honour, really, because I have the opportunity to represent the fighting spirit of Italy. I wanna show how an Italian fights. That’s the example that I wanna set.”
If Vettori does manage to pull off the victory on Saturday night, it’ll take his current win streak to five with his last defeat being the aforementioned result against Adesanya in Arizona.
If you want to check out our SK interview with Vettori, the full video can be found below.