Brandon Vera was the next big thing that wasn’t.
Upon his debut, there was talk of him being the savior of the UFC heavyweight division and possibly the next man after Randy Couture who would capture both the heavyweight and light heavyweight titles!
However, the prophecies of Vera’s success were greatly exaggerated.
After starting 4-0 in the UFC, Vera went an abysmal 3-5, with none of the three wins being anything special (only one of the fighters he beat is still in the UFC, after all) and would’ve been kicked out of the UFC had Thiago Silva not failed his drug test.
Vera’s UFC 137 opponent, Elliot Marshal, hasn’t had much luck either.
Marshal is only 2-2 in the UFC with his most recent fight being an embarrassing loss to Luiz Cane.
Who will prevail when the two down-on-their-luck fighters meet?
It’s a difficult question to answer since both men are of an equal skill level.
Despite being a skilled Greco-Roman wrestler, Vera’s real strength is his Muay Thai. Seven out of 11 wins have come by way of (T)KO!
Marshal’s area of expertise is the ground game. He sports a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and has five submission victories to his credit.
However, whenever Vera is faced with a big fight that he needs to win, he loses; he has terrible clutch! But this doesn’t mean that he is fated to lose, far from it.
Vera has enough wrestling to stop Marshal from taking him down. This will work towards Vera’s advantage since he has an edge in the striking. He’ll pepper Marshal with strikes en route to a late (technical) knockout or unanimous decision victory
Bleacher Report’s Matthew Saccaro