Marlon Vera doesn’t see UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley surviving five rounds with him.
Vera (21-8-1 MMA, 15-7 UFC) challenges O’Malley (17-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) in the UFC 299 headliner on March 9. Vera handed O’Malley the lone loss of his career back in 2020, a first-round TKO after kicking him in his peroneal nerve and finishing him on the ground.
“Chito” envisions a similar fate for O’Malley when they run things back.
“I beat the f*ck out of him and walk away with a bag of cash and the belt,” Vera said on the “Believe You Me” podcast. “I really believe I’m going to make him quit. I really believe I’m going to make him just be a shell of himself and just kick his ass, almost like beg me to stop kind of thing.”
Vera gave O’Malley credit for claiming the bantamweight title with a knockout of Aljamain Sterling at UFC 292 but said he’s a completely different striker than Sterling.
“He’s really good at catching you coming in,” Vera said. “But at the level of striking that someone like Aljamain is, head in the middle, just swinging left and right, not even seeing the target, that’s a very poor, low-level striking game.
“He’s (Sterling) so good of an athlete and a very good wrestler that he managed to figure it out, how to just go like a zombie and get a hold of the leg. With me, it’s different. I’m making math in my head in there.”
Vera plans on meeting O’Malley in the middle and forcing him to fight, something he sees playing in his favor.
“He’s a very talented guy,” Vera said. “He can fight and everything, but I said it before and I’ll say it again: He won’t keep up in a hard fight. He’s a guy that moves well, and he plans to use his athleticism, and I’m going to make him fight. He will have to face me.
“I’ll be ready. I’ll be prepared. I just know that the moment we start fighting, I know everything I’ve been through, so I’m going to get that belt. I’m going to go through him, I’m going to stop him, and I’m going to be world champion.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 299.