Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
Marvin Vettori took the next step up the middleweight ladder last night (Sat., June 13, 2020) at UFC on ESPN 10 live on ESPN/ESPN+ from inside UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada, when he finished hard-nosed counterpart Karl Roberson via first-round submission (rear-naked choke).
There was bad blood coming into the fight and it showed in the early going. Both men landed at a good clip but it was evident that Vettori was better than Roberson in close quarters. The Italian scored multiple takedowns en route to landing heavy ground-and-pound late into the first. Roberson eventually gave up his back and allowed Vettori to sink in the rear-naked choke finish.
Check out the first-round stoppage above courtesy of UFC/ESPN.
With this performance, Vettori extends his current middleweight win streak to three and now throws his name into the mix to challenge a top 15 opponent his next time out. Vettori is still only 26 years of age and went to a split decision with current division champ, Israel Adesanya, so his future heading into the second half of 2020 is quite promising.
For complete UFC on ESPN 10 results and coverage click here.