Marvin Vettori is just days away from his first UFC title shot against middleweight champion Israel Adesanya, but he’s already earned a big win away from the octagon.
Vettori’s manager Ali Abdelaziz told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto that the Italian star has signed a sponsorship deal with Dolce & Gabbana, an Italian fashion powerhouse brand. The details of the deal are unknown in terms of the income he’ll be making and for how long the deal lasts.
The deal comes just days before Vettori’s showdown with Adesanya in Glendale, where the two top middleweights fought earlier in their careers in their first matchup in which Adesanya won in a razor-thin close fight that went to a split decision. Vettori is attempting to become the first Italian-born UFC champion in the promotion’s long history.
Just a year ago, Vettori was still making the climb up the UFC middleweight division and earned a submission win over Karl Roberson at UFC Vegas 2. He was relatively unknown to most fight fans with his notoriety mostly coming from his close loss to Adesanya.
Vettori enters UFC 263 on a five-fight win streak since the first fight with Adesanya. Over his last two fights, he has defeated middleweight contenders Kevin Holland and Jack Hermansson en route to the title shot. It was widely expected that former champion Robert Whittaker would get the rematch with Adesanya, but he opted to take some time off after his dominant win over Kelvin Gastelum.
Vettori has the chance to shock the world on Saturday night in Glendale in front of a sold-out crowd at Gila River Arena. This will mark the UFC’s third full-capacity event since easing back towards normalcy after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic last year.
Win or lose, it appears that Vettori’s stock has risen in an unbelievable fashion over the past few years. With the new sponsorship deal, Vettori has the chance to celebrate the new business venture with an upset win at UFC 263.
Do you think Marvin Vettori could pull off the upset over Israel Adesanya?