Marvin Vettori gets his hand raised after defeating Jack Hermansson in the main event of UFC Vegas 16.
Marvin Vettori retracts Paulo Costa callout; wants title shot next
Marvin Vettori was emotional following his UFC Vegas 16 main event victory over Jack Hermansson and rightfully so.
Over the summer, Vettori earned a win over Karl Robertson and said he deserves an opportunity. He was beating guys left and right and his only loss since 2017 came by a split decision to current middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.
Vettori finally got his shot on Saturday night and he made the best of his opportunity. After going back-and-forth with Hermansson for 25 minutes, Vettori walked away the winner and now he’ll be ranked in the top five of the middleweight division.
As the emotion poured of him, he made not one, but two call outs.
In his post-fight interview with Jon Anik following the fight, “The Italian Dream” called for a fight with Paulo Costa.
Then when Vettori went to his post-fight press conference, he changed his mind. Instead he wants to jump the line and avenge his loss to Adesanya.
“Before I called out ‘Borrachinha,’ but to be honest with you, (expletive) ‘Borrachinha.’ He just came out of a crazy loss. Why would I even fight him?” Vettori said at his press conference. “I want to go straight to the title, man.”
Vettori then laid out his reasoning as to why he deserves the title shot over the rest the contenders at 185-pounds.
“I’ll be honest, I like the fight, but I feel like the top five there’s no opposition,” Vettori added. “There’s no real opposition. (Jared) Cannonier just lost, Darren Till is – I don’t even think he’s top five – ‘Borrachinha’ just lost brutally and Jack was No. 4. (Robert) Whittaker wants to just enjoy Christmas with his kids, but I don’t blame him it just doesn’t really seem like he wants to fight for the title.”
As for Adesanya, Vettori had some words for him as well.
“Israel is full of (expletive),” Vettori said. “He was like, ‘Oh, I don’t think I will ever see Marvin again, he will never will make it to the title.’ Well guess what mother(expletive)? I’m here. So, he thinks he has it all figured out. He has nothing figured out. I know his true colors. I met him a few times. I fought him. I knew his true colors. I want that fight.”
