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His home for the time being is Huntington Beach, California, the home of Kings MMA and half a world away from his home country of Italy. Before making the full-time move to California in 2016, Vettori spent time in England as well as a period splitting time between Italy and California for camp.
It’s from there that he is driving to Las Vegas to step into a main event slot against Jack Hermansson on short-notice after Kevin Holland pulled out of the bout due to a positive COVID-19 test. It’s a fitting way for Vettori to find his way into his first main event – he’s had a string of cancelled and rescheduled fights in the last year – but Vettori’s deadpan confidence remains unflappable amidst all the change.
“To be honest, I think I’m going to destroy this guy,” he said. “In all honesty, I think I’m better than this guy anywhere. He thinks he’s a good grappler. Guess what? I’m a better grappler than him. If you want to grapple, let’s grapple until he’s dead tired, and then I’m going to knock him out. To be honest with you, I know he beat Jacare (Souza), but from my standpoint, I think it’s actually a better matchup for me. If I was him looking at my fights – and I’m sure he’s saw me before – I’d be asking myself a lot of questions.”
While that’s a bold statement to make when facing the No. 4 middleweight contender in the world who is fresh off a first-round submission win over Vettori’s Kings MMA teammate, Kelvin Gastelum, all one needs to do is look at Vettori’s record to understand his belief.
Since returning from a USADA suspension that kept him out of action for a year, Vettori is 3-0, and his only loss in the last three years came in a split decision against middleweight champion Israel Adesanya. The only thing that gives him any slight pause is the prospect of fighting five rounds for the first time, but even then, the 27-year-old is – you guessed it – confident in his ability to swim in deep waters if need be.