Marvin Vettori released his first statement following his defeat to Jared Cannonier.

Vettori suffered a comprehensive unanimous decision defeat to Cannonier in their UFC Vegas 75 middleweight headliner this past weekend.

A bloodied and battered Vettori showed remarkable heart (as well as a chin) to last the distance as he absorbed a record 241 significant strikes from Cannonier — the most in a UFC middleweight fight.

Although he can be polarizing, Vettori definitely earned some fans as he was never dropped nor did he appear to look for a way out despite being outclassed for the majority of the contest.

That was highlighted in his first reaction to the fight as the Italian took to Instagram to reveal he would come back stronger.

“A lion remains a lion. Spirit was never broken. I’ll be back stronger, I promise you that. #theitaliandream”

The setback puts Vettori back in the L column as he is now alternating between wins and losses.

The 29-year-old was on a five-fight winning streak until he was outpointed by current champion Israel Adesanya in their middleweight title fight at UFC 263 in June 2021.

He would bounce back with a unanimous decision win over Paulo Costa before getting beat by former champion Robert Whittaker in a three-rounder in September last year.

Once again, Vettori would return to the win column with a unanimous decision win over Roman Dolidze at UFC 286 in March earlier this year.

However, this latest defeat now puts him at 2-3 in his last five fights as it appears highly unlikely he'll get another title shot unless he manages to string a run of wins together.

Even if he does do that, it's hard to see him getting a crack as long as Adesanya is the champion given that the latter already holds two wins over him.

He would have to essentially pull a Whittaker and beat literally everyone else in the division to validate a potential trilogy with Adesanya.

Of course, another option is moving up to light heavyweight and given the state of that division — as well as the fact that his fight with Costa took place at 205 pounds — it could certainly be a new avenue for Vettori to explore if he wants to become a UFC champion.

For now, we'll just have to wait and see what's next for Vettori.