This past Saturday at UFC Vegas 23, The Italian Dream Marvin Vettori (17-4-1) was looking to pick up his fourth consecutive win. Vettori took on one of the fighters of the year in 2020 Kevin Holland (21-7).
Originally, Vettori was supposed to fight Darren Till (18-3-1) at UFC Vegas 23 in the main event. However, just a little over a week before the fight, Till broke his collarbone in training and had to pull out of the fight.
Kevin Holland had just headlined UFC Vegas 22 against Derek Brunson. That night, Holland saw his five-fight winning streak come to an end. However, he didn’t take a lot of damage. He immediately volunteered to step in for the injured Till.
The promotion quickly put the fight together. Holland came into Saturday night more focused than we’ve seen him in a long time. However, The Italian Dream was willing to do whatever it took to take one more step towards a UFC title shot.
While Holland had success on the feet, the story of UFC Vegas 23 was the wrestling of Marvin Vettori. Vettori was able to get Holland down at will and ended up setting a middleweight record for takedowns on his way to winning a lopsided decision.
What’s next after UFC Vegas 23?
After the fight was over, Vettori said that he wanted to face Israel Adesanya (20-1) in October for the UFC middleweight title. Vettori and Adesanya fought to a split decision in April of 2018.
The Italian Dream has two headlining UFC wins under his belt now and he’s definitely one of the options to face the champion next. However, is that going to be what’s next for Marvin Vettori?
Unfortunately for Vettori, there’s only one way I see him getting the next title shot. The only way I see him getting the next shot is if Kelvin Gastelum defeats Robert Whittaker (22-5) this Saturday night.
Robert Whittaker is the former middleweight champion and the only man to defeat him at middleweight is Adesanya. If Whittaker wins this Saturday, he would have three huge wins since he lost the title at UFC 243.
However, if Gastelum wins, there is a shot that Vettori will be next. If Vettori doesn’t get a UFC title shot next, one opponent I like for him is Derek Brunson (22-7). Brunson has won four in a row and he’s ranked fourth at middleweight. That could be an option or perhaps they try to make the Till fight again.