Many have hailed Marlon “Chito” Vera‘s growth on the road to his first title shot at UFC 299.
UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley is not one of those people.
“Not really, to be honest,” O’Malley said on The MMA Hour when asked if Vera has improved since their 2020 matchup. “A little bit. He’s kind of peaked.”
O’Malley and Vera collide on March 9 at the Kaseya Center in Miami as the main event of UFC 299. The two rivals previously met at UFC 252, with Vera winning by first-round TKO. Four years later, the result remains the only loss on O’Malley’s professional MMA record.
O’Malley, 29, has rebounded from that lone setback in masterful fashion. The popular American is unbeaten in his six bouts since facing Vera, culminating in a stunning second-round knockout of Aljamain Sterling to capture the UFC bantamweight title in August.
Vera, 31, has traveled a rockier road, racking up a 5-2 run with big wins over Frankie Edgar and Dominick Cruz but one-sided losses to Jose Aldo and Cory Sandhagen. Vera bounced back from his poor Sandhagen performance with a close decision over Pedro Munhoz in his most recent bout. That win ultimately catapulted Vera into his rematch against O’Malley, however his history with the champ played a primary role in the matchmaking.
“To be 100 percent, honest I still haven’t fully watched the Pedro fight. I watched two minutes of it, almost two minutes of it, and realized, I was like, ‘I’m going to KO this dude,’” O’Malley said. “That’s all I needed to watch. Tim [Welch] does most of the watching and he’ll show me little clips and little stuff here and there, but for the most part, yeah, I just watched two minutes of that, realized I was going to knock him out, and that’s all I need to know.”
“I’m better than this dude,” the champ added. “I’m going to go out there and do what I was about to do to him [in our first fight] and put his lights out. He’s good, he’s tough, he’s very durable, but that doesn’t get the job done against me. You can’t just be tough, you can’t just be durable. I believe I’m more skilled, faster, more accurate, and I’m going to go out there and I just feel confident standing in front of him.”
One potential hurdle O’Malley faced ahead of his first title defense was the status of his longtime head coach, Tim Welch, who suffered a devastating torn Achilles in November while playing basketball. Welch is O’Malley’s primary pad-holder, in addition to the many other responsibilities he carries within the partnership, yet O’Malley says camp for the Vera rematch has been smooth sailing. According to the champ, Welch hasn’t been slowed at all.
“It’s so crazy,” O’Malley said. “I remember just yesterday when his Achilles popped. I heard it go [pop] and we all were like, ‘What the f***?!’ And then he got surgery three days later. And now we went through a full fight camp and he’s already walking around and out of his boot and moving around, holding mitts just fine. He’s still got a little limp, still got a little bit of an issue there, but zero worries. There was no worries there. He’s been holding mitts for me pretty much the whole time. It’s actually pretty crazy to think about how fast he’s recovered and how active he already is.”
Speaking to MMA Fighting in February, Welch doubled down on the sentiment that Vera’s growth since the first O’Malley fight has been overstated. Welch said Vera has barely improved in the years since and stated that he believes the Ecuadorian’s confidence will not be high heading into March’s rematch. Welch also predicted a “viral knockout” for O’Malley.
In that regard, the champ won’t disagree.
“I could definitely see that,” O’Malley said of Welch’s prediction. “Mentally, physically, emotionally, I’m preparing for 25 minutes. I’m preparing to leave there limping, leave there sore, leave there with my hand hurt from his head. So [I’m] preparing for the worst, but realistically, I’m putting this dude lights out within three [rounds].”
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