This Christmas, spare a thought for poor Jack Hermansson. The Swedish middleweight was once considered a hot prospect in the division thanks to his unorthodox style and string of five impressive wins throughout 2018 and 2019. Even when his KO loss to Jared Cannonier at a UFC Fight Night in Copenhagen, Denmark on September 28, 2019, looked like it was going to derail him, Hermansson bounced back with a first-round submission win earlier this year over Kelvin Gastelum.

In the meantime, UFC men's middleweight champion has gone on to become a new superstar in the sport and is set to move up a weight class to challenge light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz in his next bout. It seems like this has taken the shine off Hermansson, which explains how he ended up with the biggest booby prize in the UFC.

Even in a year as congested as 2020 due to COVID-19, UFC President Dana White still wants the final PPV of the year (UFC 256) to be a major show, and that means the worst place to be is on the event that takes place directly before it, and this year, that's only by a week. And so, while all the hype builds for Deiveson Figueiredo defending his title twice in as many weeks and for Tony Ferguson to face Charles Oliveira, Hermansson was left main eventing a UFC Vegas show, nobody really wanted to see.

To make matters worse, not only did Hermansson's original opponent, the two-division nearly man Darren Till drop out due to injury, his replacement Kevin Holland also had to drop out due to a positive COVID-19 test. And so, on November 28, Hermansson's third and ultimately actual opponent was revealed to be Marvin Vettori. Preparing for one opponent is difficult enough, preparing for three – each with a totally different style – is ridiculous. And it was happening at a thankless event too.

Vettori came into this main event on a three-fight win streak, but more interestingly is the loss that came before that was against Adesanya. He dragged Adesanya, not yet champ, to a decision, but it was a split with one of the judges thinking Vettori had won. This is something no other fighter has been able to do.

In the first round, he showed why as his crisp, clean boxing flattened Hermansson. He used the tiny cage at the UFC Apex to pile on the pressure early. It looked as if the Swede came into this fight having prepared for three different fighters instead of the one who was against him on the night. In Round 2, Hermansson tried to make up for this by grappling, only to find Vettori flip into top position and hold him down for the bulk of the round.

Hermansson is known for his cardio; his constant bouncing is reminiscent of Ryu's idle animation in Street Fighter II, and yet by the third round, his heavy breathing was picked up by the microphones in the empty UFC Apex. Vettori was simply too much for him in all aspects of the fight.

Perhaps the secret to Vettori's success came from his cornerman. Until this fight, Vettori was something of a maverick. Commentator Dominick Cruz aptly referred to him as a "gunslinger", a fighter who likes to get up close, brawl, and see what happens next. In between rounds, Vettori was constantly reminded to stay calm, so instead of going wild, he stoically imposed his will.

However, Hermansson is highly rated for a reason, and when the fight entered the main event rounds, the tide started to turn. Vettori had never been in a bout that lasted longer than 15 minutes, and his energy clearly started to fade while Hermansson looked as if this was Round 1 all over again. In fact, he was so fresh, it almost seemed like he was playing possum in Rounds 2 and 3.

In Rounds 4 and 5, Hermansson was springing in and out, chaining quick combinations and chipping away at Vettori's toughness. In the first three rounds, Hermansson threw 38, 35, and then 72 strikes; in Round 4, he threw 106. Unfortunately, this created the kind of donnybrook Vettori is naturally inclined towards, and he responded equally by attempting 104 of his own. Slower, clumsier, and less deadly than before but still in kind. Every punch that connected from Hermansson did the damage, Vettori's were pitter-patter.

This late rally wasn't enough for Hermansson, and Marvin Vettori won via unanimous decision (46-49, 46-49, 45-49). A running theme of this year has been the late replacement fighters messing with the storylines. In losing, Jorge Masvidal made a dominant Kamaru Usman look like a chump, and Paul Felder proved he was lionhearted against Rafael dos Anjos. In victory, Vettori made both Hermansson and himself look tough, at least to the handful of people paying attention.