UFC light heavyweight Brandon ‘The Truth’ Vera (12-5, 1NC) got a little bit ahead of himself, as he tells it, when he accepted a rematch with Brazilian fighter Thiago Silva.
The two were recently announced for this May’s UFC on FX 3 event, but Vera was forced out due to injury.
Both men had fought in January 2011 at UFC 125, and saw Silva dominate Vera to a unanimous decision. ‘The Truth’ was cut and Silva saved himself from two straight losses. As it turned out, Silva had falsified the urine sample he provided to the Nevada State Athletic Commission and was subsequently suspended for one year.
The loss to Vera was changed to a “No Contest” and ‘The Truth’ was brought back into the UFC.
Since then he’s been chomping at the bit at the chance to rematch Silva in the Octagon and immediately said “yes” when offered the chance. Unfortunately for him, his doctors said no and in a video message on Facebook, Vera explains the whole story.
“Hey everybody, it’s Brandon “The Truth” Vera here. I wanted to clear up some stuff, and apologize. I’ve been bugging my manager, I’ve been bugging Joe Silva and the UFC, so as soon as Thiago Silva’s suspension was over and he was available, I would like to be the first one to fight him and get back in there with him. Kind of a welcome back thing. Finally the fight came, Joe said the fight can happen May 15th. My manager told me the fight is happening May 15th…and without thinking, without talking to my coaches, without talking to my doctors, I verbally said ‘Yes, I’m down for the fight, let’s do this, let’s get it done. I’m in.’ Super excited, hung up the phone, promptly went on a run, and got super excited.
“The next morning I went to my doctors after training and told my doctors that I was planning on fighting May 15th, and…everybody looked at me like I was crazy. They said there’s no way I’ll be ready by then, and I need to focus on getting better. So I sat down and was thinking ‘Yeah, maybe those guys are right.’ So I didn’t check with my doctors, I didn’t check with my coaches. I apologize to both you guys. I apologize to Joe Silva and my manager Matt Stansell. I apologize to my fans. I still wanna fight you bad Thiago, Thiago, however you say your name juice monkey. I still wanna fight you bad. So whenever you’re ready, whenever I’m healthy enough, I’m your huckleberry.”
No new opponent has been named for Thiago, but one can be assured that a rematch is in the making sometime this year whenever both fighters are ready.
Props to BloodyElbow.com for the transcription.