Marvin Vettori

Marvin Vettori (born September 20, 1993) is an Italian professional mixed martial artist.

He currently competes in the Middleweight division in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

A professional since 2012, Vettori is a former Venator FC Welterweight Champion.

As of September 12, 2023, he is #5 in the UFC middleweight rankings.

The eldest of three siblings, Vettori was born in Trento, Italy.

He was interested in martial arts at a young age, and started practicing kickboxing as his first real martial art around the age of 13.

He was inspired to train mixed martial arts after watching fighters such as Fedor Emelianenko in PRIDE on TV when he was sixteen.

When he started out training MMA in Italy, Vettori went to six different gyms to get all the skills and training he needed, as in Italy, at that time, the sport was still growing and a proper MMA gym was hard to find.

He moved to London in 2012 for two years to train MMA and later moved to the United States to train at Kings MMA.

Vettori trains six days per week and his typical training day would split into two sessions, one in the morning and one in the evening.

He starts out his training at 10 am to train on his striking technique with his coach, Rafael Cordeiro, for an hour, followed by wrestling drills and cage work with the help of Mark Muñoz.

The second session would be in the evening to work on either conditioning or BJJ training which usually would end at 10 p.m.

Vettori also has a clothing line coming up called 'Italian Dream Apparel'.

Vettori fought in the European circuit and amassed a record of 10–2 prior joining the UFC.

Vettori made his UFC debut on August 20, 2016, at UFC 202 against Alberto Emilliano Pereira.

He tapped out Pereira via guillotine choke in round one.

Vettori next faced Antônio Carlos Júnior at UFC 207 on December 30, 2016.

Both Vettori and Carlos Júnior committed eyepokes and received a warning each from the referee but no point was deducted.

The fight lasted three rounds and Vettori lost via unanimous decision, with 29–28 scores across the board.

Vettori faced Vitor Miranda on June 25, 2017, at UFC Fight Night: Chiesa vs. Lee.

He won the fight by unanimous decision.

Vettori faced Omari Akhmedov on December 30 at UFC 219.

The back-and-forth fight ended in a majority draw.

One of the judges scored it 29–28 for Vettori, and the others viewed it as a 28–28 draw, with Akhmedov winning the first two rounds, but Vettori having a dominant 10–8 round in the third.

Vettori's next fight was scheduled on April 14, 2018, against future champion Israel Adesanya at UFC on Fox 29.

He lost the fight via a split decision, with two judges scoring the fight 29–28 for Adesanya, and the third judging it as 29–28 for Vettori.

On April 23, 2019, it was reported that Vettori was suspended for 6 months as he tested positive for ostarine, a selective androgen receptor modulator, from an out-of-competition test conducted on August 24, 2018.

The United States Anti-Doping Agency determined that the positive test was the result of a contaminated dietary supplement, and found no evidence of intentional use of the banned substance.

He became eligible to fight again on February 24, 2019.

Vettori faced Cezar Ferreira on July 13, 2019, at UFC Fight Night 155.

He won the fight via unanimous decision.

After the fight with Ferreira, Vettori signed a new contract with the UFC and was scheduled to face Andrew Sanchez on September 14, 2019, at UFC Fight Night 158, replacing injured David Branch.

However, it was reported that Sanchez was forced to pull from the event due to an eye infection, resulting in the cancellation of the bout.

In turn, the pairing was left intact and eventually took place a month later at UFC Fight Night 161.

Vettori won the fight via unanimous decision.

Vettori was scheduled to face Darren Stewart on March 21, 2020, at UFC Fight Night: Woodley vs. Edwards.

However, due to COVID-19 pandemic, the event was cancelled.

Vettori was scheduled to meet Karl Roberson on April 25, 2020.

However, on April 9, Dana White announced that this event was postponed.

Instead Vettori was scheduled to face Karl Roberson on May 13, 2020, at UFC Fight Night: Smith vs. Teixeira.