Marvin Vettori continued his climb up the middleweight rankings with a unanimous decision victory over Jack Hermansson in the featured bout of a UFC Fight Night event at the UFC APEX facility in Las Vegas over the weekend.
The fighters agreed to the bout roughly one week prior to the event after Hermansson was originally scheduled to face Kevin Holland but Holland was removed after testing positive for COVID-19. Vettori had been preparing to face Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza on Dec. 12 but stepped up for his first opportunity to headline a UFC card.
The pair went all five rounds and took home Fight of the Night bonuses. All three judges gave Vettori four out of the five rounds as the 27-year-old Italian improved to 16-4-1 in MMA and extended his winning streak to four.
Most significant strikes in a middleweight bout… EVER.
What a fight tonight from the UFC APEX #UFCVegas16 pic.twitter.com/u6WRY1sjjo
— UFC (@ufc) December 6, 2020
Vettori’s only loss since 2016 was a three-round split decision to current 185-pound champion Israel Adesanya. Vettori was the No. 12-ranked middleweight contender prior to Saturday and the win vaulted him up to No. 5. Meanwhile, Hermansson was ranked No. 4 in the division but fell two spots to No. 6 after dropping two of his past three fights.
Also on the card, Jamahal Hill, Gabriel Benítez, Jordan Leavitt and Ilia Topuria all picked up impressive wins on the eight-fight card that had several bouts scrapped due to positive COVID-19 tests.
Here are the full results.
MAIN CARD
— Marvin Vettori def. Jack Hermansson by unanimous decision
— Jamahal Hill def. Ovince Saint Preux by TKO
— Gabriel Benítez def. Justin Jaynes by TKO
— Roman Dolidze def. John Allan by split decision
— Jordan Leavitt def. Matt Wiman by knockout
PRELIMINARY CARD
— Louis Smolka def. José Alberto Quinonez by TKO
— Ilia Topuria def. Damon Jackson by knockout
— Jake Collier def. Gian Villante by unanimous decision
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