After a long hiatus, the former middleweight title challenger was unable to announce his return with a win on Saturday night.
Marvin Vettori has already given his thoughts in a post-fight statement after suffering a defeat to Roman Dolidze in the main event of UFC Vegas 104.
With Dolidze avenging his loss from UFC 186, Vettori called for a rematch after the judges separated the two men at the end of five rounds.
It has been a long road back to the Octagon for ‘The Italian Dream’ with Vettori previously naming multiple fights that fell through before March 15.
The loss has motivated him to make a quick turnaround with his first target being some unfinished business with a rival of his at 185-pounds.
Marvin Vettori calls out middleweight rival Brendan Allen
In April of 2024, Marvin Vettori was set to compete in another main event spot as he looked to bounce back from his decisive loss to Jared Cannonier the previous June.
The 31-year-old was booked to face Brendan Allen but an injury forced the Italian to withdraw from the fight with Chris Curtis taking his place.
Though Allen extended his winning streak to seven on that night by avenging his loss to Curtis in 2021, ‘All In’ has since lost back-to-back fights.
After exchanging some words with Vettori after their fight was cancelled, tensions boiled over when the two middleweight contenders came face-to-face at a PFL event in Florida this past August.
Allen and Vettori got into a brawl with a video of the altercation picking up steam on social media to further the rivalry between them.
Having lost back-to-back fights for the first time in his career, with Allen being in the exact same spot, Vettori posted a message on X to say that he knows who he wants to fight next and that he’s raring to go.
“Saturday sparked the fire again, 21 months out was a bit. Angry Vettori might be back lol. Time to win some fights. Allen before I see you outside what you doing next? Who is gonna retire who?”
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What else could be next for Marvin Vettori?
Both Marvin Vettori and Brendan Allen are in similar spots right now as former top contenders in the middleweight division who have fallen down the pecking order.
Whilst they could face each other in a huge fight for both men, it would also make sense for them to defend their spots in the top 15 rankings against some rising contenders.
The winner of the upcoming matchup between Bo Nickal and Reinier de Ridder is one option, whilst Vettori has already named some others.
Names like Roman Kopylov and Joe Pyfer have a lot of potential at middleweight but if either Allen or Vettori were able to get past them, it would show that their days of competing with the best at 185-pounds might not be over just yet.