The Ultimate Fighting Championship is turning to
two reliable middleweight contenders to draw eyeballs this
June.

Via the UFC’s
announcement on Thursday, Marvin
Vettori (19-6-1) and Jared
Cannonier (16-6) will be throwing down on June 17 for a
potential crack at the 185-pound throne. This comes even though
both fighters are a combined 0-3 against the titleholder, Israel
Adesanya. The fight will be held at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas,
atop
UFC on ESPN 46, on a card that otherwise has few bouts on the
billing thus far.

After losing his bid for Adesanya’s belt in June 2021, Vettori has
seen an up-and-down schedule. In a bizarre scene that involved an
unexpected change in weight class, Vettori bounced back from his
loss to “The Last Stylebender” by topping Paulo Costa
on the scorecards at 205 pounds. The Italian middleweight dropped
back down to his usual weight class nearly one year later, and
ultimately fell short to former champ Robert
Whittaker. In March, “The Italian Dream” placed himself back in
the win column by staving off hard-charging Georgian Roman
Dolidze. Vettori has gone to the judges in his last six fights,
and 12 of his last 13 encounters overall.

Former heavyweight Cannonier has experienced the greatest success
in his career thus far at 185 pounds. Only dropping decisions to
Whittaker and Adesanya across the way, Cannoier has beaten the
likes of Anderson
Silva, Derek
Brunson and most recently, Sean
Strickland. The fighter with a stoppage rate of exactly 75% has
gone the distance in four of five, with a lone victory over
Derek
Brunson bookended by multiple five-round verdicts in his way
and against him. “The Killa Gorilla” is one of a small number of
fighters to ever grace the Octagon that have earned knockouts
across three weight divisions.





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Vettori vs. Cannonier Set as UFC on ESPN 46 Main Event on June 17