UFC middleweight Marvin Vettori admits that the buildup to his fight with Paulo Costa has lacked animosity, but that doesn’t mean his motivation isn’t there.

Coming off a heated pre-fight feud with champion Israel Adesanya, which culminated with a decision loss this past June, Vettori is set to return against Costa on Saturday in the UFC Fight Night 196 main event at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. It’s big fight, to be sure, between two guys whose most recent losses were against the reigning champ. With a second consecutive defeat, either man would have a deep hole to climb out of in order to earn a second title shot.

Perhaps the high stakes are why things have been relatively quiet between Vettori (17-5-1 MMA, 7-3-1 UFC) and Costa (13-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC). But with fight week’s arrival, maybe that changes.

“I feel like we’ve been pretty quiet for the buildup to the fight. We’ll see how fight week (goes),” Vettori told MMA Junkie. “I don’t like the guy necessarily. He’s not a guy that I would get along with as a friend. He talked a bunch of sh*t before, here and there. But personally, I don’t know him. He never did anything to me too much that is personal. With that being said, I don’t need anything personal to beat somebody unconscious. I don’t need anything personal, especially to (deal with) the problem in the cage.

“I see it as, like, (my opponents) all have a part of what I want, regardless. Whoever gets in there is trying to stop me from getting what I want, so I don’t need to be mad to just mess up somebody’s face.”

On his way to a title shot, Vettori strung together five wins in a row before a lopsided UFC 263 loss to Adesanya, a fact that Vettori still has trouble accepting. When he looks at Costa, who was TKO’d by Adesanya 13 months ago for his first career loss, Vettori is confident that he’s better all around.

“He’s good in some areas of the striking,” Vettori said. “He definitely has a pop in his punch, and he definitely can crack. But I feel like, in general, as an MMA fighter, I’m superior. Even as a striker, I’m superior.”

He continued, “I’m gonna give the fans what they want. I want to knock this guy out, loud and clear. My mind is ready, my body is ready, and my spirit is ready, and I’m just ready to go.”

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