Marvin Vettori thinks it’s only a matter of time before Khamzat Chimaev meets someone he can’t bully.
‘Borz’ delivered one of the most dominant performances in UFC title fight history, handily defeating Dricus Du Plessis in August to claim the undisputed middleweight championship of the world and taking his record to a perfect 15-0.
So far, Chimaev has looked pretty damn perfect in his UFC run, save for a cardio issue against Kamaru Usman that didn’t seem to be an issue against ‘DDP.
But despite that, Vettori remains convinced that Chimaev’s one-note game plans will ultimately fail.
“He beat him up for five laps, and the guy couldn’t get up,” Vettori said. Helen Yee while discussing Chimaev’s performance against Du Plessis. “I just think everyone was like… he’s a great wrestler. He doubled up in wrestling; you can tell from his training that he just trained with the best wrestlers there in Chechnya and stuff. So he definitely doubled up in wrestling.”
“But I still think a lot of people – because there’s a lot of wrestlers in the top ten, top five in my division now – they still think they’re going to give him trouble, because if DDP was just exposed to the fact that he couldn’t really get back up, didn’t really have a game to get back up, I know some of these guys definitely know how. They’re going to… he’s going to have to expend a lot more energy, you know?”
Vettori has fallen short in his last three and still has some work to do before he can hope to earn another shot at the 185-pound crown.
Marvin Vettori needs a win if he wants to challenge Khamzat Chimaev
‘The Italian Dream’ will look to return to his winning ways on December 6 when the promotion presents UFC 223, featuring two unmissable title fights and a bout between Vettori and Brazilian standout Bruno Ferreira.
Check out the current lineup for UFC 323 below:
UFC 323 PPV main card enabled ESPN+ PPV (10:00 PM ET):
Merab Dvalishvili(c) vs. Petr Yan – UFC Bantamweight Championship
Alexandre Pantoja(c) vs. Joshua Van – UFC Flyweight Championship
Henry Cejudo vs. Payton Talbott
Jan Błachowicz vs. Bogdan Guskov
Brandon Moreno vs. Tatsuro Taira
UFC 323 Prelims Card on ESPN, ESPN+ (8 p.m.):
Marvin Vettori vs. Brunno Ferreira
Grant Dawson vs. Manuel Torres
Mansur Abdul-Malik vs. Antonio Trocoli
Chris Duncan vs. Terrance McKinney
Maycee Barber vs. Karine Silva
Nazim Sadychov vs. Rates ziam
Map subject to change.
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