After a disappointing loss last Saturday it appears as if Brandon “The Truth” Vera (11-6) has been released from the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Vera also suffered a severely broken nose at the hands of his opponent Thiago Silva, in their main card bout as part of last weekends UFC 125 event.
FiveOuncesOfPain.com reported Vera’s release on Thursday morning, citing a source “near the situation.” Vera is still listed on the UFC roster for light-heavyweights and no word has come from the fighter since his fight on his Twitter.com/Verafied or official FaceBook page.
Despite the unconfirmed news of his release, it’s not hard to picture the UFC cutting the light-heavyweight fighter, it was Vera’s third straight loss.
Vera put in a poor performance last weekend and was soundly dominated by Silva on the mat. The Brazilian was able to take Vera down with ease controlling the fight from the top. At one point in the third, while Silva had Vera’s back against the cage, he started slapping Vera about the head. Thiago later noted during the post-fight press conference that he was using the tactic in an attempt to open “The Truth” up for a submission, but from an observers point of view it appeared as if Silva was trying to embarrass Vera into fighting harder.
Vera ends his current run with the UFC with a 7-6 record making his first appearance at UFC Fight Night 2 against Fabiano Scherner, he’d go on to win a second round knockout in that fight. He’s gone on to fight big names such as Frank Mir, Tim Sylvia, Fabricio Werdum, and Krzysztof Soszynski. The two previous losses before the Silva bout were against Jon Jones at UFC LIVE: Vera vs. Jones and against Randy Couture at UFC 105.
Update: MMAWeekly.com has confirmed Vera’s release with a source close to the fighter.