Marlon Vera is nothing if not opportunistic.
He has traversed more than 3,500 miles, leaving his family and homeland of Ecuador in pursuit of a dream of fighting in the UFC. November will mark 10 years since becoming the first Ecuadorian fighter in the premier MMA promotion.
And Saturday will mark the culmination of his career, a chance to rematch with Sean O’Malley and try to wrench the bantamweight title from the colorful fan favorite in the UFC 299 main event in Miami.
“I’m strong and ready to go and life is good, man,” Vera, 31, said in a recent interview with the Southern California News Group. “Everything is there, in the right direction, and good things are happening here.”
It has been a remarkable journey for “Chito,” who was 23 when he arrived in Orange County, living with his manager, teaching several classes a week and cleaning the gym – “I just wanted to make $1,000 a month,” he said – in hopes of making a living doing what he loved.
His wife and two young children remained in Ecuador as Vera chased what he admits now was “a gamble.”
“You get emotional thinking about just, like, the fact that 12 years ago, you were wandering around like … at some point, I need to figure something out for my life,” said Vera, who was able to move his wife and kids here and later have another child in 2018.
“And now things are like, well, my dreams have been becoming a reality. And slowly but surely, you just keep achieving things and opening new doors and getting bigger and better.”
Vera (23-8-1) has won five of his past six fights in the UFC, using devastating kicks to knock out former champions Frankie Edgar and Dominick Cruz in the process.
Marlon Vera reacts after knocking out Frankie Edgar in the third round of their bantamweight fight at UFC 268 on Nov. 6, 2021, in New York. (AP Photo/Corey Sipkin)
Overall in the UFC, he has won 15 of his 22 fights, the lone blip in the past three years a split-decision loss to title contender Cory Sandhagen. He has finished 11 UFC opponents – snatching submissions holds, pouncing on fallen opponents and dropping elbows, cracking heads and bodies with his hands and feet – doing whatever it takes while moving with alacrity.
And the UFC has noticed: Three bouts were recognized as Fight of the Night and five of those victories were deemed Performance of the Night, each of those coming with a $50,000 bonus.
But it’s the one victory not part of his recent string of success, nor deemed worthy of a bonus, that is why Vera will be O’Malley’s first title defense.
At UFC 252 in August 2020, Vera went toe to toe with the undefeated O’Malley, who had taken the UFC by storm with his eclectic style and winning his first four fights. About three minutes in, Vera cracked O’Malley with a kick to O’Malley’s right knee, which appeared to stun the upstart 135-pounder, who later said it caused his right foot to go numb.
Toward the end of the round, O’Malley’s right foot gave way and he collapsed to the mat. Vera jumped in and landed a crushing elbow and more strikes, the fight getting stopped with 20 seconds left in the round.
O’Malley (17-1), who was later diagnosed with drop foot as a result of a peroneal nerve injury, has brushed off the loss as a fluke.
“Well, there’s nothing I can do about that, right?” Vera said. “It’s not my fault, I mean, if you break down like that, right?”
As for what has changed in nearly four years, Vera says he has gained invaluable experience.
“I got all the big names I fought. I mean, the biggest names,” Vera said. “I’m the one fighting main events back to back, against former champions, top-five contenders, and I just started feeling like I did what I needed to get to this point and be ready. I mean, I have the spirit. I am way better than I was before. It’s the only thing I can do, right?”
O’Malley, meanwhile, came back seven months later and knocked out three consecutive opponents. After his UFC 276 bout in July 2022 with Pedro Munhoz was ruled a no contest because of an accidental eye poke to Munhoz, “Suga Sean” took home a widely disputed split decision over former champion Petr Yan less than four months later at UFC 280.
What is beyond dispute is what O’Malley did next, amid cries of favoritism from the UFC: O’Malley quieted the critics with a second-round TKO of champion Aljamain Sterling at UFC 292 in August.
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Vera has never been finished in 13-plus years of fighting. He says is not taking the 29-year-old champion, whose tattoos and colored hair and outlandish style are offset by a pair of quick and powerful hands, lightly Saturday.
“I’m not seeing the funny guy who talks (trash) when I’m there in the cage. I’m expecting someone really dangerous, really well prepared,” Vera said. “Because that’s what pushed me to just be better every day. So I’m expecting the hardest fight of my life, just like I do with every fighter I have in front of me.”
UFC 299
Main event: bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley vs. Marlon Vera
When: Saturday
Where: Kaseya Center, Miami
How to watch: early prelims (3 p.m., ESPN+); prelims (5 p.m., ESPNews, ESPN+); main card (7 p.m., PPV via ESPN+)