The Italian Dream will finally get a big time name in his next UFC contest. Marvin Vettori (15-4-1) is riding a three fight winning streak since fighting to a split decision loss to the current champion, Israel Adesanya. Vettori has looked very solid inside the octagon.
We last saw Vettori when he took on Karl Roberson back at UFC on ESPN 10. That night, Vettori submitted Roberson in the first round of their fight. Since that victory, Vettori has been calling for a big time name in the UFC‘s middleweight division.
However, the promotion struggled to get him a fight. Recently, it was thought that Vettori would be taking on Omari Akhmedov, however those plans have seemingly changed. Vettori’s coach said that the current plan is to take on the legend Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza (26-8, 1 NC) at UFC 256.
For Jacare, the fight with Vettori will mark the first fight for him in 2020. The last we saw of Jacare in the UFC was last November when he took on current light heavyweight champion, Jan Blachowicz. That night, Souza lost by split decision.
Solid middleweight clash at UFC 256
Souza will walk into the cage on December 12th at 41 years old. It is pretty clear that he doesn’t have many fight left in his UFC career. However, he can still hang with the best of them as he showed in his last UFC contest.
He still possesses elite skills on the ground, and he can hold his own on the feet. This will be a big test for the Italian Dream. Vettori has been looking for that UFC win that will put him on the map when it comes to the MMA casuals.
He’s been searching for that signature UFC victory. If he can pick up his fourth consecutive win in the UFC and do it against a guy like Jacare, it will say a lot about the path Vettori is on. Who knows, maybe one day he could run it back with the champion.