Two top-ranked Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweights
with recent decision losses to the champ will square off this
May.
On Thursday, Ariel
Helwani brought word that Robert
Whittaker (23-6) will be entering the Octagon in June against
Marvin
Vettori (18-5-1) in the middleweight division at
UFC 275. Whittaker had spoken to The MMA Hour on
Wednesday, hinting that he would be facing his opponent in
Singapore on June 11. Vettori’s manager has since confirmed the
pairing in an interview with Helen
Yee on Thursday night.
Former champ Whittaker had a three-fight win streak snapped when he
faced Israel
Adesanya in a rematch to get his belt back in February.
Although he was not knocked out like the first meeting, he did drop
a close five-round decision to the champion. Before suffering his
second defeat to Adesanya, “Bobby Knuckles” had rattled off a trio
of decision wins over Darren Till,
Jared
Cannonier and Kelvin
Gastelum to earn another crack at the crown.
Vettori has since rebounded from his 25-minute defeat to Adesanya
by defeating Paulo Costa
on the scorecards in October 2021. In their meeting, the two were
initially slated to face off at 185 pounds, but weight issues for
Costa prompted its move to 205 pounds on short notice. The
aforementioned loss to Adesanya put an end to a five-fight
victorious stretch with four decisions and a submission of Karl
Roberson in the middle. Both men sport identical finish rates
of 61% as pros, with just one stoppage in their last six wins
apiece.
UFC 275 does not currently have a destination on the books, but it
is rumored to be taking place in the Singapore Indoor Arena in
Kallang, Singapore, on June 11. The headliner comes in the form of
a light heavyweight championship battle between Glover
Teixeira and Jiri
Prochazka, and the co-main event draws a women’s flyweight
title tilt as Valentina
Shevchenko looks to defend her throne against Taila
Santos. The only other matchup booked for the card is a
strawweight fight pairing Silvana
Gomez Juarez against Na Liang.