Ismail Naurdiev says he saw this one coming. After taking a unanimous 29-28 decision over Marvin Vettori at UFC 332, Naurdiev said he always expected to come out ahead in the boxing exchanges, even while giving Vettori his due.
“You saw it yourself. His boxing wasn’t that bad. But like I told you, it won’t make a difference,” Naurdiev said, in a clip posted by MMA Fighting on X.
Vettori sees it the opposite way. Sportskeeda’s headline on his post-fight comments quoted him as saying “I won that s**t” about his boxing, and plenty of people watching agreed with him.
How the rounds went
Vettori came out trying to drag Naurdiev into a grind, mixing boxing combinations with leg kicks, according to Essentially Sports. Naurdiev answered with plenty of his own offense, then landed the biggest punch of the night in Round 2, a right hand that briefly rocked the Italian.
Vettori recovered quickly. He pushed back through the rest of the second and appeared to rock Naurdiev late in the round. In the third, Naurdiev slowed down while Vettori kept walking forward and throwing. Naurdiev did get his wrestling going and scored multiple takedowns, but Vettori kept getting back up and was still pressing when the final horn went.
The judges gave it to Naurdiev on all three cards anyway, and the replies filled up fast. “Robbery. Marvin won rounds 2 and 3. Absolutely ridiculous,” one fan wrote, as collected by Essentially Sports. Another asked, “How did the optics of loud leg kicks that didn’t do any real damage win the fight? Marvin won 2 rounds on damage.”
Five in a row
The numbers are ugly for Vettori, and they don’t care how close it was. The 33-year-old walked in on a four-fight skid with no fights so far in 2026, and he walks out with five straight losses.
Five years ago he was riding a five-fight win streak and got his rematch with Israel Adesanya at UFC 263, which Adesanya won by unanimous decision. Vettori followed that with a win over Paulo Costa at UFC Vegas 41 and later beat Roman Dolidze at UFC 286. That Dolidze fight is still his last victory. Jared Cannonier, Dolidze in the rematch, Brendan Allen and now Brunno Ferreira and Naurdiev have all beaten him since.
Essentially Sports put his situation bluntly, noting he rarely finishes people and lacks the kind of fanbase that tends to protect a roster spot. Nobody has announced anything about his future, but five losses is the kind of number that gets a fighter’s contract discussed in rooms he isn’t in.
Quick take
I had Vettori winning the third without much argument, and the second is a coin flip where the guy who got rocked also did more of the work afterward. You can make the case for Naurdiev on the big right hand. A clean 29-28 sweep is harder to defend. Naurdiev deserves credit for saying it straight, because he admitted Vettori’s boxing held up and still told you it wouldn’t matter. On the scorecards, it didn’t. For Vettori, a robbery and a clean loss count the same on his record, and that column now reads five.
