Israel Adesanya has some advice for Marvin Vettori after their UFC 263 rematch.
Adesanya and Vettori mixed it up a second time last night (June 12). The UFC Middleweight Title fight headlined UFC 263. Back in 2018, Adesanya scored a split decision win over Vettori. In the rematch, Adesanya left no doubt with a one-sided unanimous decision victory.
While Adesanya clearly won the fight, it appears Vettori doesn’t agree. After the fight, Adesanya claimed Vettori told him he feels he won the fight. Adesanya told Vettori, “you can keep thinking that, whatever makes you sleep at night.”
Adesanya told reporters during the post-fight press conference that Vettori is going about the defeat the wrong way.
“After my last fight, I won’t say who but certain people thought I won that fight. Certain people in my camp thought I won that fight. But I was just like, ‘Nah, it was close, but I’ll take the L from that one, and I’ll grow. I will learn. If I wanted to have his mentality, I would hold on to that. And I would keep going after Jan. It’s so stupid. That’s not how you grow. How you grow is you learn from your mistakes. You go back to the drawing board and you improve. You become better from them. Loss is a part of life. Losses make you better.
“So my advice to him would be, just look yourself in the mirror tonight…maybe not tonight, give it a week. Let things settle down. Look yourself in the mirror and be like, ‘Look, Israel is better than you. Israel is better than you. Izzy’s way better than you. You couldn’t do shit to him. But I’m gonna get better from this.’ And I swear to you, his next fight, he’ll improve if he does the work right. But you gotta let it go. You gotta let it go.”
Adesanya now has three successful middleweight title defenses. During his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, “The Last Stylebender” said he’s ready to give Robert Whittaker a rematch. Adesanya is hoping the bout takes place in Auckland but with strict COVID-19 safety measures, that may not be possible anytime soon.
As for Vettori, he sees his five-fight winning streak snapped. Vettori has gone 5-2 in his last seven outings. Both losses were against Adesanya.
