After injuries sidelined him for the longest layoff of his career, former middleweight title challenger Vettori (19-8-1 MMA, 9-6-1 UFC) returned Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, only to drop a unanimous decision against Roman Dolidze (14-4 MMA, 8-4 UFC) in a rematch of a fight he won on the scorecards at UFC 286 in March 2023.

Dolidze (14-3) is back on a winning streak after losing consecutive fights for the first time. Dolidze has now beaten Vettori, Kevin Holland and Anthony Smith successively. Vettori (19-8-1) is on his first two-fight losing skid after dropping consecutive decisions to Dolidze and Jared Cannonier.

Incredibly it wasn’t Vettori’s first wardrobe malfunction either with the 31-year-old infamously having his shorts on backwards during a photoshoot to promote his UFC 263 middleweight title fight against Israel Adesanya. However, in the end, the delay did little to put his opponent off his game as Dolidze won by unanimous decision.