Marco Tulio has bold plans for his next moves in the UFC after his upcoming middleweight fight with Christian Leroy Duncan this weekend at the UFC APEX, and that includes giving Mavin Vettori the first knockout loss of his career.<\/p>\n
Vettori is scheduled to face Brunno Ferreira on the final pay-per-view of the year, UFC 323 on Dec. 6, and Tulio sees him as one of the ideal opponents if he improves to 3-0 in the promotion on Nov. 8.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne guy I really want to fight is Vettori,\u201d Tulio told MMA Fighting. \u201cMarvin Vettori is a really tough guy, he\u2019s fought several of the division\u2019s biggest names and has never been knocked out, and I\u2019d love to be the first one to do it, to knock him out. [Roman] Dolidze too, he\u2019s closer to the rankings, near the top 5, and that would be a great fight as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
If all goes right Saturday, and something happens to any middleweight bout before the end of the year, including Vettori vs. Ferreira, the Chute Boxe fighter is open to a quick turnaround so he can chase four octagon wins in a calendar year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said I wanted to fight four times this year,\u201d said Tulio, who had to pull out of a fight with Michel Pereira in August to undergo hand surgery. \u201cIt could\u2019ve happened, but I really believe in God\u2019s plans. After everything that happened with me, especially on the Contender, I learned to rest more and not let anxiety take over. I believe that if God blesses us to do good work, December is still there. There\u2019s still a whole month left. I\u2019m here in the U.S., and if it\u2019s His will, I\u2019ll be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe the UFC sees me in a good light within the organization,\u201d he continued. \u201cThis will be my fifth fight \u2014 two on the Contender, two in the UFC \u2014 and I\u2019m looking at three straight wins in the organization. I strongly believe they\u2019ll probably give me a ranked opponent after winning this one. And if not, I\u2019ll keep working. It\u2019s going to happen soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dolidze had a three-fight winning streak snapped earlier this year when he lost to Anthony Hernandez, and Vettori has his back against the wall after losing his past three straight.<\/p>\n
After knocking out Ihor Potieria and Tresean Gore in the UFC and going 2-0 on the Contender Series, defeating Matthieu Duclos and Yousri Belgaroui, Tulio sees a scenario where he beats both Vettori and Dolidze next to set up a dream clash with former middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.<\/p>\n
\u201cI admire him a lot, I\u2019m a huge fan of his, but I just don\u2019t know how much longer he\u2019ll stay in the UFC,\u201d Tulio said. \u201cI think he\u2019s the biggest name in the division today, historically speaking. To me, he\u2019s the second-best middleweight in the world. Those three guys would be the path I\u2019d like to climb right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tulio left Sao Paulo early to be with Norma Dumont for her UFC Vegas 110 win over Ketlen Vieira, and now it\u2019s his turn to enter the octagon seven days later. His teammate Allan Nascimento was also victorious that night, pocketing extra $50,000 in bonus for his performance, and Tulio hopes to keep the momentum going for Chute Boxe.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I have a lot of power in my hands,\u201d Tulio said. \u201c[Duncan] fights very loose, very technical on the feet, very dangerous with spinning attacks and elbows \u2014 kind of similar to me, really. It\u2019s a good match-up for me because he doesn\u2019t like to be pressured, doesn\u2019t like taking heavy shots. If you let him fight, he\u2019ll unleash his arsenal. But I\u2019m the lion inside that cage, and I think that\u2019s going to make him uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marco Tulio has bold plans for his next moves in the UFC after his upcoming middleweight fight with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,701,638,82,640,702],"class_list":{"0":"post-270594","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc","15":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}