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Marvin Vettori believes he'll finally defeat Israel Adesanya if he squares off against the UFC middleweight champion for a third time.
Vettori has faced Adesanya twice in the past and lost both times. He fell via split decision at UFC on Fox: Poirier vs. Gaethje in April 2018 and via unanimous decision at UFC 263 in June this year.
During a recent conversation with former welterweight champion Matt Serra on the UFC Unfiltered show, 'The Italian Dream' claimed he can definitely beat 'The Last Stylebender'. He expects to win the middleweight title if they meet for a trilogy bout down the line.
"I think that I will beat him [Adesanya] and I will be the champion. I can go into details but I have an important fight [against Paulo Costa] ahead of me. So I don't want to think on that. If I have to tell you one thing that I take from that fight is that like, he didn't bring anything that I couldn't handle and that overall really surprised me. But that's it. So I will be the champion and he's not even a burden on me anymore. I just know it to deeper level now."
Watch Marvin Vettori in conversation with Matt Serra below:
Vettori, who has a 17-5-1 record, is scheduled to take on Paulo Costa in the main event of UFC Vegas 41, a.k.a. UFC Fight Night 196, later today.
Marvin Vettori can get back into the middleweight title picture with a victory over Paulo Costa at UFC Vegas 41
Marvin Vettori and Paulo Costa are ranked No.5 and No.2 in the UFC middleweight division, respectively. A win for either fighter today will see them back into the title picture.
Both Vettori and Costa lost to Israel Adesanya in their last bouts. The Nigerian-New Zealander inflicted the latter's first career loss by knocking him out at UFC 253 last September.
Marvin Vettori and Paulo Costa will clash in a light heavyweight encounter instead of a 185-pound outing. That's after Costa revealed he wouldn't be able to make weight for their own division earlier this week.
Vettori will now get 20% of his opponent's purse, in addition to what he's being paid already by the UFC for today's main event.
