Marlon Vera says Dominick Cruz’s style of fighting isn’t suited for MMA.
Marlon Vera thinks Dominick Cruz’s unorthodox fighting style is ‘very low level’ and not suited for mixed martial arts.
Vera dropped Cruz multiple times in Saturday’s UFC San Diego main event, but it took ‘Chito’ almost four rounds to find the finish and put ‘The Dominator’ out for good with a head kick.
Vera was getting outpointed for most of the fight but maintains that he was simply biding his time and not letting Cruz’s awkward style get to him.
“I was just being patient, I was taking my time,” Vera said at the UFC on ESPN 41 post-fight press conference (h/t Alexander K. Lee of MMA Fighting). “I dropped him in the first round, and when I dropped him I didn’t go crazy. I didn’t try to chase the finish, I never chase the finish. I don’t have any problems standing in front of you and finding those openings.”
“Honestly, me and my team, we really think the way he fights is kind of very low level. There’s no base, there’s no good stance, all that movement side to side — we told each other, ‘We have to kick this guy’s ass.’ But by saying that, you put a lot of pressure on yourself.
“I just believe that his style is not the best style for MMA. Maybe for boxing it can work better, but for MMA you’ve got way too many weapons going. What he does well, he mixes takedowns with that movement. That’s when he’s successful. But I was like, it’s going to be hard for him to take me down, so we were pretty confident, but we knew this fight wasn’t easy.”
Vera knocked out Cruz to extend his winning streak to 4-0, with two KO’s over two former champions in Cruz and Frankie Edgar. The Ecuadorian is currently #5 in the UFC bantamweight rankings and holds the record for the most finishes in UFC bantamweight history at 11.