Michael Bisping believes that Marvin Vettori would be UFC middleweight champion by now if it wasn’t for Israel Adesanya.<\/p>\n
The Italian is currently ranked at #2 at 185lb following an impressive win over Paulo Costa<\/a> in October. The fight reaffirmed his reputation as one of the toughest fighters in the UFC.<\/p>\n As a former champion himself, Bisping knows what it takes to conquer the UFC middleweight division.<\/p>\n \u201cIf it wasn\u2019t for Israel Adesanya right now, he\u2019d (Vettori) be the champ, definitely,” said Michael Bisping on a recent YouTube Q&A.<\/a><\/p>\n “He\u2019s the next best guy at 185 in my opinion, he\u2019s doing tremendous things. I\u2019m a friend of Marvin\u2019s, I think he\u2019s tremendous. That fight he had against Paulo Costa was sensational. I called that fight, I was right there, he won that fight fair and square but Paulo Costa had a lot of success and some of the shots that Marvin ate, some of those kicks and punches and the power that Costa has, Marvin took every single f***ing one of them,” Bisping continued. (h\/t SportsKeeda<\/a>)<\/p>\n “(Vettori) never took a backwards step and fired right back every single time. It was a really inspiring performance. I was already a fan but after that I was like wow, this guy is incredible, man,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n