That’s the reason I love doing commentary, because I’m watching live. “It doesn’t matter who’s fighting, it doesn’t matter who’s first or last fight of the night, I’m watching. “I pay attention to every single UFC, top to bottom,” Vera said. Vera plans to keep a close eye on his peers and how the title picture develops. Not to mention the bantamweight champion himself, Aljamain Sterling, who next defends his title against T.J. However, there are several contenders in the same range, including the likes of Petr Yan, Sean O’Malley, Jose Aldo, and Merab Dvalishvili, all of whom are set to compete in the upcoming months and could block Vera’s path to a title. His past three wins have come against ranked opponents (Cruz, Rob Font, Frankie Edgar) and he has one of the strongest cases for a title shot in his division. With the impressive knockout, Vera extended his record for the most finishes in UFC bantamweight history to 10. Munhoz rushed the finish and then he kind of left everything in the first round, so I just told myself, ‘I’ve got f****** four more rounds to break this guy, so don’t get crazy.’ This thing (points to head) is a motherf*****, so I was like, ‘Just stay focused and you will catch him.’” So when I dropped him the first time in the first round, the first thing that came to my mind was what happened in the Munhoz fight. “When you’re in shape, you can get back up and he can scramble pretty good. “He comes in really good shape,” Vera added. I don’t have any problems standing in front of you and finding those openings. I didn’t try to chase the finish, I never chase the finish. “I dropped him in the first round, and when I dropped him I didn’t go crazy. “I was just being patient, I was taking my time,” Vera said. Vera actually had Cruz hurt on a couple of occasions earlier in the bout, but he exercised caution as opposed to rushing in for a finish. Marlon Vera delivers jaw-dropping head kick to knock out Dominick Cruz at UFC San Diego UFC San Diego in Tweets: Pros react to Marlon Vera’s wicked KO of Dominick Cruz in main event UFC San Diego post-fight show: What’s next for Marlon Vera after monster KO of Dominick Cruz? That loss, a second-round TKO at the hands of Henry Cejudo at UFC 249, was hotly disputed by Cruz, but there was no debating Saturday’s finish. He is legendary for his evasiveness and durability, with only one knockout loss on his record prior to his fight with Vera. But I was like, it’s going to be hard for him to take me down, so we were pretty confident, but we knew this fight wasn’t easy.”Ĭruz’s career achievements include a 24-4 record and championship reigns in the UFC and the WEC. What he does well, he mixes takedowns with that movement. Maybe for boxing it can work better, but for MMA you’ve got way too many weapons going. “I just believe that his style is not the best style for MMA. “There’s no base, there’s no good stance, all that movement side to side - we told each other, ‘We have to kick this guy’s ass.’ But by saying that, you put a lot of pressure on yourself. “Honestly, me and my team, we really think the way he fights is kind of very low level,” Vera said. ![]() ![]() 7 bantamweight in MMA Fighting’s Global Rankings.Īt the evening’s post-fight press conference, Vera was asked if there was anything about Cruz’s unique standup style that confused him, and he downplayed the difficulty of the matchup. ![]() It was the fourth straight win for Vera, who entered the weekend as the No. ![]() “Chito” needed time to put Cruz down for good, but by the fourth round he was locked in and he landed a brutal head kick that left Cruz face-down on the mat to cap off the UFC San Diego main event. Marlon Vera had Dominick Cruz’s number on Saturday.
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