Even more than usual, Marlon Vera is looking for a fight.
The Ecuadorian contender has won four in a row, rising into the Bantamweight Top Five as a result of his current win streak. However, his next step forward is a bit unclear. 135-pound kingpin Aljamain Sterling is likely to defend his title next against returning former champion Henry Cejudo, and top star Sean O’Malley seems to be lined up to face the winner.
Vera wants to fight. At one point, he was angling to fight Cory Sandhagen, but those talks seemed to fizzle quickly for whatever reasons. Now, Vera wants to fight Petr Yan, one of the highest ranked and unbooked fighters available. Unfortunately for “Chito,” there’s a problem: Yan is still a bit hung up on his controversial decision loss to “Suga.”
Vera has been on the wrong side of a controversial decision previously. It didn’t generate quite as much heat as the aforementioned “Suga Show,” but Song Yadong’s 2020 win over Vera did slightly go against media and fan expectations. Regardless of how the bout was scored, Vera recommends ending the fight before the judges get involved.
“The highest ranked guy right now, name-wise and everything, is Petr Yan. I’ve been trying to get the fight with Yan, but that a—hole is crying to the UFC about judging and how he should have won,” Vera said (via MMA News). “I’m like, ‘You wanna win the fight? You finish the guy.’ Maybe he didn’t take it serious because he fought a funny guy, but the funny guy can fight too.”
Speaking on his own experience in the Yadong fight, Vera says the best solution is to get back in the cage quickly. In his opinion, Yan has to stop complaining and get in the cage with him if he’s to rebound.
“I’m like, stop crying. The best way to fix that is by getting back on it and try to win. I’ve been there before, I got robbed against Song Yadong. (I didn’t spend) energy complaining or crying, I was like, ‘F—k it, give me another fight.’ The best approach, in my opinion, is to go and get it.”
I seem to remember an extremely angry “Chito” expending a bit of energy online about the decision immediately afterward and in the coming months whenever “The Kungfu Monkey” fought. Nevertheless, Vera remained true to his overall point, returning to action just three months later and battering O’Malley into unconsciousness to rebound.
It remains to be seen if he can entice “No Mercy.”