Marvin Vettori has had enough of people dragging his brother into his mess. On Saturday morning, the UFC middleweight went on X and lit into the critics who have turned their fire toward his sibling. “Its crazy how fucking low these people are by all talking shit about my brother,” he wrote. “You guys never fail to represent yourself.”
The post didn’t stay small for long. Within the hour it was sitting on the front page of r/MMA, and by evening MiddleEasy had framed it as Vettori condemning the remarks about his brother after his November 5 defense of racial language drew heavy criticism. Vettori didn’t name anyone in particular, and he didn’t spell out what had been said about his brother. His meaning was plain enough, though: going after family crosses a line.
How this started
The backlash dates back to Thursday, when Vettori defended the use of racial language online. By Saturday, the reaction had grown well past the usual reply-guy pile-on.
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One X user, @orthocobra, tagged the UFC, Paramount and Skydance and accused Vettori of using the n-word and calling Black people chimps. The same post demanded action from the companies. MMA journalist Alexander K Lee quote-posted it and aimed his criticism at the promotion as much as the fighter. “any other sports or entertainment organization would make addressing this a priority except the UFC,” Lee wrote, adding, “disgusting stuff from Vettori.” Content creator Dovy, who posts as @DovySimuMMA, kept his advice shorter: “Marvin Vettori needs to put his phone down.”
The UFC has not publicly addressed any of it in the material available so far.
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This isn’t the first time Vettori’s language has put him in the crosshairs. Back in February 2025, welterweight Joaquin Buckley publicly called out Vettori and Conor McGregor for using the N-word. Buckley argued then that fighters should speak up when others disrespect their community. He has stayed on that path. This week, Essentially Sports reported that Buckley confronted middleweight champion Sean Strickland over Strickland repeating the slur at a Brand Risk event in May. That confrontation turned into an online back-and-forth, with Strickland posting sparring footage and the caption “Sit down Buckley.”
So Vettori’s post arrives in a week when the conversation about slurs in the UFC was already loud. Buckley was pushing it from one end, and the champion of Vettori’s own division sat on the other.
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Quick take
Vettori is right on one narrow point. Whatever his brother is catching online, he didn’t write the posts that started this, and he shouldn’t be the punching bag for them. The trouble is that Vettori’s anger is aimed entirely at the people reacting, and Saturday’s post says nothing about the November 5 comments that got everyone reacting in the first place. Until he addresses those, or the UFC does, the replies under every post he makes are going to look exactly like they did this weekend.
