[autotag]Marvin Vettori[/autotag] thinks he’s finally found a suitable dance partner to help push him toward title contention and hopes the UFC will back his callout of former middleweight champion [autotag]Chris Weidman[/autotag].
Vettori (15-3-1 MMA, 5-2-1 UFC) has made no secret his desire to face “The All-American” as he bids to gatecrash the established order at the top of the UFC’s middleweight rankings, and sees a win over the former champion – who snapped a two-fight skid with victory over Omari Akhmedov at UFC on ESPN+ 32 – as the perfect way to stake his claim.
Explaining his callout to The MMA Road Show, Vettori said, “I feel like he got back in the mix and it’s a great fight. He’s a former champ. It’d be nice to have a win on my record against him. I figured it just made sense. A lot of people turned me down, and a lot of people either have an excuse, or they have a fight coming up, or they’re not as active. I like any fight, but this fight makes more sense than any other, I think. It’d be a great fight, an entertaining fight to watch and I want his name on my record.”
Vettori hasn’t heard back from Weidman (15-5 MMA, 11-5 UFC) or the UFC following his repeated social media callout of the New Yorker, but he says he’s hopeful the UFC will approve of the matchup and look to get it booked for later this year. Right now, though, his efforts have been met with silence.
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“Honestly I haven’t got many answers, but I feel like the UFC will like this fight,” he said. “I heard he got offered my name and, for now, I didn’t hear no answer from him and no response whatsoever from my posts and stuff. I don’t know how he can act like he doesn’t see it.
“I don’t want to wait too long. Ideally the middle of October, maybe all the way (to the end of October) but I want to fight, man. I don’t want to wait for too long just waiting for whatever. At the end of the day, we’re all fighters. We have to stay active. That’s all I do. I train every day anyway. … I know I can be fight-ready in six weeks, easily, from the moment I get back to the US, so the middle of October would be perfect.”
Whether it’s Weidman or another name from the UFC’s middleweight rankings, Vettori just wants to get a fight booked and make another statement inside the octagon. He’s riding a three-fight win streak, thanks to victories over Cezar Ferreira, Andrew Sanchez and Karl Roberson, and he’s keen to keep that momentum rolling against ranked opposition.
“They promised me a name in the top 15, but I don’t know how these guys keep getting away without accepting it,” he said. “It’s crazy – I don’t know how they do it. I know my name has been offered to a lot of (expletive) guys, even (guys ranked) behind me and they still don’t accept, so something has to come up.”
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