Marlon Vera releases statement after UFC San Antonio loss: ‘Zero excuses’

Marlon Vera is moving on from a disappointing UFC San Antonio performance.

“Chito” lost a split decision to Cory Sandhagen in Saturday’s main event, dropping two scorecards to his fellow bantamweight contender to suffer his first setback in five fights. Later that evening, Vera took to Twitter to issue a statement, making no excuses for the result.

“Fell short today got zero excuses just remember something I won’t stop,” Vera wrote. “This sucks but f**** it’s life.”

Vera also wrote a message in Spanish to thank supporters from his home country of Ecuador.

With the loss, Vera takes a step back in the deep bantamweight contenders line, but likely won’t be lamenting the outing for long. He told the media prior to the bout that he wasn’t assuming he’d earn a title shot with a win over Sandhagen anyway with former two-division champion Henry Cejudo challenging Aljamain Sterling for the UFC title next and the top of the division being in constant flux.

“The way that the rankings are done, it’s really hard to predict things,” Vera said this past Wednesday. “You’ve got [Sean] O’Malley No. 1 after he beat [Petr] Yan, you’ve got Merab [Dvalishvili] No. 1 after he beat Yan. Yan wasn’t No. 1 in his last fight and you beat the guy and you go to No. 1, so it really doesn’t f****** matter. You can be No. 10 and fight for the title. It’s whatever the f*** the UFC wants to do at this point, and so I’m OK with that because I’m putting in work, I’m winning the way they want me to win, and the fans are cheering for me. There’s a reason this is in front of an arena. There’s a reason I’m fighting three main events in a row.

“I just keep making money and eventually the belt will come to me, because the harder you chase things, they might get away from you. I’m just going with the flow. I know I’m working hard, so I’m not worried about anything.”