Marvin Vettori thinks Paul Felder is a “puppet”.
This weekend Marvin Vettori is set to headline UFC Vegas 41 opposite Paulo Costa. Both he and his opponent are coming off losses to UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya. Vettori has been very talkative in the lead-up to this one, sharing comments on both his upcoming and previous opponents.
Vettori has also found time to chat about someone who will be commentating during his fight this weekend; Paul Felder. Vettori and Felder beefed online earlier this year after the Italian accused Felder of being bias while calling a fight between Vettori’s friend Nasrat Haqparast and Dan Hooker.
The Italian spoke to MMA Fighting about this issue recently and promised to confront ‘The Irish Dragon’ during fight week.
“Paul Felder tried to be the smart kid in the comments when he replied to me,” he said. “I didn’t really like that. It’s not that I didn’t like it, it’s just coming from him, it’s not like it really made sense but he tried to be funny. I addressed the thing that was important to me.”
Vettori expressed that his dissatisfaction with UFC commentators extends beyond Felder. Though, he reserved his harshest words for the former fighter.
“Sometimes I feel like commentators, they just try to bias the public and whoever watches the fight cause they have that power sometimes and it’s wrong, We put our heart and soul out there and even him being a fighter and even him talking to the fighters before they fight, he should know better. Sometimes, I don’t know what goes on but I just feel like him in particular, he’s a puppet.
“I’ll see him and I’ll talk to him. I like to talk face-to-face. At the end of the day, we’re in a civilized society, kind of civilized. By saying that, it’s not that it’s going to bother me or nothing. I just couldn’t keep my mouth shut when I saw it happen to a friend.”
“I’ll talk to him for sure,” reiterated Vettori. “Whenever I see him, I’ll talk to him for sure,” Vettori said. “I just expect for anybody that does their work to be able to do their job properly. That’s what I ask. That’s the only thing that I ask. If he does it properly, then there shouldn’t be any problem.”
Before Vettori was bested by Adesanya earlier this year he was riding a five fight win streak. That streak included a finish of Karl Roberson and decisions over Cezar Ferreira, Andrew Sanchez, Jack Hermansson and Kevin Holland.