Michael Bisping, the former UFC middleweight champion, believes Marvin Vettori would be the middleweight champ if it wasn’t for Israel Adesanya.
Adesanya is undefeated at middleweight in the UFC and has cleared out the majority of the division. Yet, many believe his rematch against Robert Whittaker at UFC 271 will be his toughest challenge, despite knocking out Whittaker to win the belt at UFC 243. However, for Bisping, he believes Vettori is the second-best middleweight.
“If it wasn’t for Israel Adesanya right now, he’d be the champ, definitely,” Bisping said in a recent Q&A on his YouTube channel (via MMAJunkie). “He’s the next best guy at 185, in my opinion. He’s doing tremendous things. I’m a friend of Marvin’s. I think he’s tremendous. That fight he had against Paulo Costa was sensational.
“I called that fight. I was right there. He won that fight fair and square, but Paulo Costa had a lot of success, and some of the shots that Marvin ate, some of those kicks and the punches and the power that Costa has, Marvin took every single f*cking one of them,” Bisping continued about Vettori. “Never took a backwards step and fires right back every single time. It was a really inspiring performance. I was already a fan, but after that, I was like wow, this guy is incredible.”
Marvin Vettori Is The Second-Best Middleweight, Says Michael Bisping
Although Michael Bisping believes Marvin Vettori is the second-best middleweight, it’s uncertain if that is true. However, if Whittaker loses to Adesanya again, then perhaps a fight between Whittaker and Vettori will happen so we can truly see who is the best second-best middleweight.
Vettori is coming off a decision win over Paulo Costa in October to get back into the win column after losing a decision to Adesanya in the rematch for the belt. He only has three losses at middleweight in the UFC, two to Adesanya and one to Antonio Carlos Junior early in UFC tenure so there is a conversation to be had that Vettori is the second-best.
