‘Marvin Vettori’s biggest weapon is his f*****g LEGO block head… Paulo Costa needs to bulldoze him’: UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya previews main event between his ‘children’
- Israel Adesanya has defended his title against Paulo Costa and Marvin Vettori
- Costa and Vettori fight this weekend in middleweight main event in Las Vegas
- Adesanya jokes that Vettori’s biggest weapon is his ‘LEGO block head’
- He thinks that Costa’s best chance is to try and bulldoze the Italian
Israel Adesanya has previewed Saturday’s middleweight headliner between two of his ‘children’.
The UFC champion defeated both Paulo Costa and Marvin Vettori in the last 13 months so is perfectly placed to run the rule over their upcoming bout.
The 32-year-old joked: ‘Vettori’s biggest weapon is his chin — that block head, that f****ng LEGO block head!
Israel Adesanya previewed Paulo Costa (bottom) vs Marvin Vettori ahead of the weekend
Vettori (bottom) suffered a unanimous decision defeat by Adesanya back in June
‘That’s his biggest weapon in this fight because he can take Costa to deep water by taking punishment, some ‘rope-a-dope s**t without the rope-a-dope, just walking forward and taking punishment.
‘But his body, everybody’s body is suspect. I don’t think anybody’s body can withstand the kind of punishment their head can if you hit them in the right spot. Same with the head, but Vettori’s just got a block head.
‘He can take a lot of punishment, I’ll give him that. I would say his best method of victory is just taking Costa to deep water by grappling him, stalling, and just making making him work, but Vettori has to be willing to try and actually do something, rather than just stall.’
Adesanya bounced back from his light heavyweight defeat by Jan Blachowicz in March
Adesanya humiliated Costa in their fight in September last year and the Brazilian was barely able to land a punch before being stopped.
It was the first defeat of his professional career and this is his first fight back since that night to forget.
Adesanya believes his path to victory is by ‘bulldozing’ his way through the Italian on Saturday night.
He added: ‘Get him out early. Do what you did to get to the dance, that got you this far, because you’re not fighting me, you’re fighting Vettori and he’s got s**t footwork — even worse than you.
Vettori has a ‘block head’ he will use as his main weapon against Costa, joked the champion
‘I feel like Costa can just do what he does: just bull rush him, bulldoze him, but be careful of the takedowns because Vettori’s gonna try that, time that, and take him down.
‘I just want to see my children so well,’ Adesanya said. ‘I really wish the best for my kids and my kid’s kid, but it ain’t me, though.’
Adesanya’s next fight is likely to be a rematch with Robert Whittaker and could even take place before the end of the year.