Vettori posted that he would not compete at UFC Baku, also known as UFC Fight Night 280, because of a rib injury. An MRI showed the rib was broken, preventing him from fighting on June 27. He had been preparing for the bout by relocating for training and planned to work with specific coaches for boxing and conditioning. He expected recovery to take about four to six weeks before returning to training. Vettori said he would focus on recovery and would accept a rescheduled fight if the opponent remained the same. His withdrawal leaves uncertainty about whether the promotion will book a new opponent for Naurdiev or reschedule the pairing.
"Unfortunately I'm here to tell you that a few days ago, I got hurt on my rib. I did an MRI and it came back today showing that the rib is broken, so I won't be fighting June 27. I was really looking forward to this fight. I moved from Florida to California for this camp. I wanted to get back to my roots, train with Beneil [Dariush], train with Julian for my boxing, train with Chase for my conditioning."
"The Italian Stallion continued, "I was feeling good, but sometimes s--t happens and you can't do [anything] about it. So yeah, now I'm going to focus on my recovery, hopefully it doesn't take too long, 4-to-6 weeks [until] I'm good to train again. If they reschedule me with the same guy, great. If not, doesn't matter. Anybody is good for me. For everybody that supported me, I'm thankful for that, and I promise you that I will be back.""
"Still just 32 years of age-Vettori joined the UFC a decade ago-the formerly ranked middleweight finds himself on a career-long losing streak of four straight. This skid remains the lone time as a professional that Vettori has dropped consecutive bouts. With his last win, a decision over Roman Dolidze, coming in 2023, Vettori has gone on to lose four times on the scorecards to Jared Cannonier, Dolidze in their rematch, Brendan Allen and Brunno Ferreira."
Read at Sherdog
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