Former opponents of Israel Adesanya finally meet at UFC 275

Māori-Aussie fighter Robert Whittaker has defeated most of the stacked middleweight division's fighters. Most, except one: Italy's Marvin Vettori.

As former challengers to Israel Adesanya's middleweight title in the last year, Whittaker (#1) will finally square off with 'The Italian Dream' (#3) when the UFC makes its way to Singapore, at UFC 275.

Whittaker's last fight inside the octagon was against Adesanya in an unsuccessful challenge to reclaim the title in February this year, despite feeling that he did more than enough to defeat the City Kickboxing fighter. Before then, 'Bobby Knuckles' had a string of victories over Kelvin Gastelum, Jared Cannonier and Darren Till.

Vettori's last bout was a unanimous decision victory over Brazillian fighter Paulo Costa back in October last year. Before that was his first middleweight title challenge against Adesanya in June that same year. That fight saw Vettori's biggest loss, with all judges scoring it a dominant 50-45 decision win to 'The Last Stylebender', but it left Vettori still convinced that he was the better fighter that night.

Whittaker (Ngāpuhi) has held the #1 ranking since dropping the title to Adesanya in 2019 and has defeated all those below him that have stepped up to take his spot. Could Vettori finally be the one to know off 'Bobby Knuckles'? To find out if 'The Reaper' can still stay atop the middleweight contender's mountain, watch UFC 275's main card on Sunday, June 12.

The main card is also headed by its first title fights to be held in Southeast Asia when the dominant women's flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko defends the gold against Talia Santos, and Jiri Prochazka challenges for the light heavyweight title against Glover Teixeira.