Middleweights
#1 MW | Robert Whittaker (23-6, 14-4 UFC) vs. #2 MW | Marvin Vettori (18-5-1, 8-3-1 UFC)Whittaker once again starts his path back to the middleweight title. After starting his career at welterweight and quickly hitting a ceiling, “The Reaper” was an absolute revelation upon moving up to 185 pounds in 2014. With his additional speed and cardio, Whittaker’s boxing popped and everything clicked into place, making him at first a knockout artist and then a title contender. Once Whittaker showed off his immensely improved wrestling chops in a 2017 win over Ronaldo Souza, it was clear that his next fight should be for a title; and within months, he had beaten Yoel Romero in an absolute war to become the UFC’s interim champion at 185 pounds. Whittaker was then promoted to undisputed champ with the second retirement of Georges St. Pierre, but any attempts for him to return to Australia as a conquering hero seemed absolutely cursed. A slated title defense in 2018 against Luke Rockhold was scrapped due to a severe staph infection in Whittaker’s stomach, and an abdominal hernia and collapsed bowel scuttled another defense against Kelvin Gastelum a year later. Whittaker’s eventual return, a 2019 title defense against Israel Adesanya in Melbourne, Australia, should have been a crowning moment for Whittaker but instead felt like a passing of the torch to the current champion. Whittaker’s aggression bordered into wildness, and Adesanya took the undisputed middleweight crown in one-sided fashion, eventually scoring a second-round knockout. Between the result and the prior injuries, the worry was that Whittaker was clearly past his prime. However, after a much-needed break to regroup, the former champion came back in his best form yet. His rebound win over Darren Till was a bit too cautious at times, but subsequent victories over Jared Cannonier and the aforementioned Gastelum showed Whittaker to be sharper than ever, fighting within himself and keeping his more limited opponents on their toes with some varied offense. That led Whittaker to a February rematch against Adesanya, which resulted in a much better performance. Adesanya managed to stay ahead on the scorecards after a hot start, but Whittaker made it a much closer fight the second time around—enough so that some thought he may have eked out three rounds in what was mostly a narrowly matched affair. Whittaker now seems clearly ensconced as the second-best middleweight in the UFC for as long as his body holds up, so it is up to him to once again pick off any potential contenders until a trilogy fight seems inevitable. It starts here against Vettori.
The face of Italian mixed martial arts at the moment, Vettori has enjoyed an impressive rise from raw prospect to title contender. Relatively formless upon his 2016 UFC debut, “The Italian Dream” started turning a corner with his 2018 near-win over Adesanya, settling into a consistent pressuring attack that leverages his cardio and extreme level of durability. Main event wins over Jack Hermansson and Kevin Holland were one-sided affairs that showed off exactly how consistent Vettori is with pouring offense onto his opponents, but the rematch against Adesanya—a much clearer loss, this time in a title fight—laid bare the issues in the Italian’s game. If anything, Vettori is consistent to a fault, with a lack of diversity to his attack that causes two main issues: Beyond the predictability making him much less of a knockout threat than his frame would suggest, a more technically sound striker like Adesanya was mostly able to outmaneuver him over the course of five rounds. Vettori’s lone fight since the last Adesanya loss, a main event win over Paulo Costa, was an impressive reminder of his durability and willingness to keep up a torrid pace, but it did not change the book on him much, particularly for this matchup. Vettori figures to be frustrating for the Aussie thanks to his sheer persistence, but Whittaker should be another fighter who can outmaneuver the Kings MMA rep’s relatively one-dimensional approach, particularly with his likely ability to shut down any wrestling attempts from the Italian. The pick is Whittaker via decision.
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Whittaker vs. Vettori
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The Prelims