“The Joker” took quite a beating en route to a decision loss at the hands of Marvin Vettori, and may be out for a while recovering.
Despite being yet another card ravaged by injuries and COVID cancellations, UFC Vegas 16 delivered the goods on Saturday night. Capping an evening of solid scraps was Jack Hermansson vs. Marvin Vettori (watch the highlights here), and while Hermansson ended up losing the fight 49-46, 49-46, and 49-45 on the judges scorecards, he can at least take a little solace in the fact that he earned a $50,000 fight of the night bonus.
He can also accept our dubbing of him as one tough son of a B, as the Swede took some serious damage from Vettori and kept on fighting. There was the bad knockdown in the first round which “The Joker” never seemed to fully recover from, a broken toe in the third that took away his ability to kick and shoot for takedowns. And somewhere along the way, Hermansson also broke his orbital.
“Broken toe and broken eyesocket but not a broken spirit,” Hermansson wrote in an Instagram message following the fight. “The goal remains the same! Thank you for your support.”
The loss drops Hermansson to 21-6 and is just his second loss in the last three years. But that’s enough to probably drop him from #4 at middleweight out of the top five … which is really too bad considering the endless series of changes he accepted to his opponents leading up to this event. But the fight game has never been kind or considerate of people’s dreams. One day you’re the favorite to beat Darren Till in a fight that would put you in title contention, and the next you get your face literally smashed by a surging beast like Marvin Vettori.
Here’s hoping “The Joker” recovers fast.