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The headliner of Saturday's UFC Vegas 16 event exceeded all expectations and turned out to be a barnburner of a contest between two genuine contenders in the middleweight division. Marvin Vettori stepped in to replace Kevin Holland to face Jack Hermansson in the main event of UFC Vegas 16 in just seven days' notice.
This was also The Italian Dream's first UFC main event, and boy, did he show up. In a back and forth thriller, Vettori has managed to edge out #4 ranked middleweight Jack Hermansson via unanimous decision after five hard-fought rounds of action. The win has now propelled Marvin Vettori to a potential title contender from a top-15 fighter.
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Vettori was initially set to fight Jacare Souza next week, but when Kevin Holland tested positive for COVID-19, the opportunity came calling, and the Italian fighter readily jumped on it. He's now reaping the rewards of the brave decision he made by taking the fight in just one week's notice.
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Marvin Vettori puts on a striking masterclass
The main event of UFC Vegas 16 turned out to be a fight fan's dream come true. In a 25-minute long slugfest, Marvin Vettori put on a striking masterclass to clinch a unanimous decision win over Jack Hermansson. The judges scored the fight 49-46, 49-46, and 49-45. The victory over Hermansson extends Vettori's impressive win streak to four in a row.
As the bell went, signaling the commencement of the fight, Marvin Vettori went on the offensive right out of the gate. Vettori looked very steady on the feet and landed some good combinations early on. Hermansson was under pressure from the start, but he retaliated well with some good shots of his own. However, it was established early on that Marvin Vettori was more effective with his striking compared to his opponent.
Halfway through the first round, Vettori landed a perfect one-two combination that clearly rocked Hermansson as he went crashing down on the canvas. Vettori quickly pounced on his fallen opponent to drive home the advantage, but surprisingly, he looked for submission instead of a ground and pound finish but could not complete the attempt. That gave Hermansson the breather he needed to recover and find his way back into the fight.
Hermansson tried to take the fight to the ground on multiple occasions but failed to do so as Vettori displayed good takedown defense skills. In the five-round fight, Hermansson only managed to convert two out of seven takedown attempts. The couple of times he did manage to take Vettori to the ground, the latter showed good defense and used reversals to avoid serious damage.
Marvin Vettori showed no fear or respect for the power coming out of Jack Hermansson's hands. The Joker used his superior conditioning to last the full five rounds but failed to inflict serious damage on his opponent. Marvin Vettori walked Hermansson down even when the latter was landing shots on him while landing counter-strikes of his own. This shows that Hermansson wasn't causing a lot of damage to his opponent with his shots.
In the later rounds of the fight, Marvin Vettori was frequently landing hard straight left punches on Hermansson's chin. Vettori was clearly ahead on the scorecards, but he was still willing to stand and trade with Hermansson and inflicted more damage than the Swede. At the end of the fight, quite unsurprisingly, it was Marvin Vettori who got his hand raised for a terrific performance on the night.
An interesting piece of statistic reveals that Vettori and Hermansson exchanged the most significant strikes in UFC middleweight history.
Even though he picked up the biggest win of his career with a brilliant performance against Hermansson, Marvin Vettori was still critical of his performance and believes he could have done better. Well, he is still a potential title contender nonetheless.
“I’m going to tell you the truth, I don’t feel great,” Vettori said when assessing his win. “I don’t feel I did a very good job. I feel I can do much better but man this guy is tough. I dropped him in the first and I thought I was going to finish him but he came back. Today, I got hella stronger. It was a hell of a fight. I’m so happy I got the win.”
With Israel Adesanya moving to light heavyweight in search of a second title in the UFC, Vettori believes that a win over Adesanya's most recent opponent will definitely ensure a title shot for him soon. Therefore, without wasting precious time following his win, Marvin Vettori promptly called out Brazilian knockout artist Paulo Costa.
“Let’s go Borrachinha!” shouted Vettori, challenging Costa to a fight inside the Octagon, which would likely decide the next title contender.
Given below are the results of all other fights from Saturday's UFC Vegas 16 event.
UFC Vegas 16 main card results:
Marvin Vettori def. Jack Hermansson via unanimous decision
Jamal Hill def. Ovince Saint Preux via TKO (Round 2, 3:37)
Gabriel Benitez def. Justin Jaynes via TO (Round 1, 4:06)
Roman Dolidze def. John Allan via split decision (28-29, 30-27, 29-28)
Jordan Leavitt def. Matt Wilman via KO (Round 1, 0:23)
UFC Vegas 16 preliminary card results:
Louis Smolka def. José Alberto Quiñónez via TKO (Round 2, 2:15)
Ilia Topuria def. Damon Jackson via KO (Round 1, 2:38)
Jake Collier def. Gian Villante via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
