MMA
Robbery? Looking Back at the Controversial Decision During Israel Adesanya vs Marvin Vettori
Marvin Vettori and Israel Adesanya faced off each other in the octagon back in 2018, it was the ‘The Last Stylebender’ who emerged victorious in a fashion that left Vettori and many of his fans to question the outcome of the match and calling out Adesanya for robbing Vettori for a victory.
Back in 2018, Vettori came very close to end Adesanya’s winning streak, however, he suffered a loss ruled out as a split decision, with two judges scoring the fight 29-28 for Adesanya and 29-28 for Vettori. After the loss, Marvin has clearly shown his disagreement with the decision.
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“People may say whatever they want about my fight. I have my opinions. He has his opinions, People have their opinions,… but whoever won that fight, and the judges – one gave it to me, two gave it to him – whoever, even him, is he happy with what happened in that fight? Did it really go down like it was supposed to go down? Did anybody really come out on top, like saying ‘I really beat the other guy’?” Marvin said on Israel’s win.
According to UFC Fight Stats– Vettori was able to land 46 out of 154 significant strikes comparing to Adesanya’s 57 out of 123 significant strikes. However, The Italian Dream was much more successful in terms of takedowns with 2 takedowns out of 6 attempted takedowns while Israel attempted 1 takedown with no success.
What happened between Marvin Vettori and Israel Adesanya back in 2018
Israel again was much quicker on his feet due to his swift movements, he was able to dish out 11 body hits out of his total 12 attempts and Marvin managed to blow 7 body hits out of 8. The Italian dominated his rival with leg kicks, Vettori looked in complete control going into the third round, with brutal previous two rounds which could have gone either way. Marvin then was able to take down Israel twice and managed to keep him down, for the win in the third round in the octagon.
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It was evident in the last round that Marvin had the complete upper hand over his opponent, and Israel was at his end of the ropes. Marvin almost ended Adesanya’s winning streak but referee Derek Cleary and Chris Hayes scored the first two rounds in favor of Israel, while Chris Lee scored the first round to Marvin Vettori, and all the judges scored the last round in favor of Marvin which gave a split decision victory to Israel Adesanya.
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On paper, Adesanya was a clear winner, but it was Marvin Vettori who made him fight hard and think harder for their fight, up until that point Adesanya was crowned winner by winning each match by TKO, but it was touch and go situation with Marvin Vettori.
“It’s not over. I think we have to settle it. We need another fight for sure.” Vettori said.
The two are set for their second bout at UFC 263 for the championship, where Marvin will have a chance to be the first Italian UFC champion. Who you think will get his arm raised at UFC 263?
