Off the back of the cancellation of his bantamweight clash against former duel-weight champion, Henry Cejudo at UFC 292 in August, fan-favorite division contender, Marlon Vera has called for a long-awaited fight with another former titleholder, Petr Yan at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts.
Vera, the current number six ranked bantamweight contender, has been sidelined since he headlined UFC Fight Night San Antonio back in March of this year against the surging, Cory Sandhagen, seeing his impressive four-fight winning run halted in a comprehensive split decision defeat.
Booked to return to the Octagon in a high-stakes fight with former undisputed bantamweight and flyweight champion, Cejudo at UFC 292 in August – Marlon Vera saw the matchup fall to the wayside just last night, with Olympic gold medalist, Cejudo confirming his withdrawal from the bout due to a shoulder tear suffered, which will require a six to eight week term of rehabilitation.
Marlon Vera calls for a reworked fight against ex-champion, Petr Yan
In turn, Vera, a staple under head coach, Jason Parillo – who has served as a headliner in his three most recent Octagon outings, has called for a long-speculated fight with Dudinka native, Yan.
“(Petr) Yan step up,” Marlon Vera tweeted following the announcement of Henry Cejudo’s withdrawal from UFC 292.
Yan step up
— C H
T O
T O
V E R A (@chitoveraUFC)
Prior to his judging loss against Sandhagen, Vera had turned in a pair of decision wins over both Davey Grant, and Rob Font – as well as stunning high kick knockout wins over former lightweight and bantmaweight champions, Frankie Edgar, and Dominick Cruz, respectively.
In the midst of a three-fight losing run, Russian contender, Yan suffered a title rematch unification loss to Aljamain Sterling, before a decision blemish to Sean O’Malley back in October.
In a headlining clash back in March to boot, Yan dropped a one-sided unanimous decision loss against Merab Dvalishvili – with the Georgian promoted to the number one contender rank in the division to boot.