Marlon Vera went to war against Sean O’Malley but came up short. He was the first and only fighter to hand ‘Suga’ a loss in his professional MMA career and unfortunately for him, he couldn’t repeat the feat that he had climbed back in 2020.

In terms of striking, there were lots of hands being thrown around. However, only during the last two rounds did it appear that Vera was making any significant impact on the reigning bantamweight champion of the world. So, what was his massive mistake according to ‘Triple C‘?

Here’s where Marlon Vera messed up according to Henry Cejudo

Henry Cejudo is an Olympic gold medal-winning wrestler. He applied his skills in the bantamweight and flyweight divisions and managed to clinch belts from both. And he is certain that since striking was not entirely working out for Vera, he should have resorted to other means.

Marlon Vera has a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Many UFC fighters come from the highest level of combat training and clearly, Vera had more tools in the shed than just his fearsome striking. In this case, perhaps Cejudo had a point.

“. . . it was a striking war, ‘Chito’ never brought (wrestling), and this is the same reason why he’ll probably never get, he’ll probably never touch a UFC title because they just focusing on striking.” He told his co-host, Kamaru Usman.

“I’m thinking ‘hey if you’re getting out-struck, pull some of the wrestling, attempt to take down,’ dude you’re a big dude I mean get to his legs, put him against the cage, clinch him, do something, but unfortunately ‘Chito’ didn’t do any of it.” Clearly, things got a bit sloppy for the Ecuadorian but perhaps it is too harsh to say that he won’t ever touch gold. Certainly, with more preparation, he can hold the title some day for the fight game is fickle and everyone has a puncher’s chance as they say in boxing. For now, the title rests on O’Malley’s shoulders and he wants to take it to Spain.

Sean O’Malley on a trip to Spain?

Sean O’Malley won his first-ever title defense and quickly asked UFC CEO Dana White to book him a jet to Spain. Why? Because that’s where the featherweight champion of the world, Ilia Topuria, might make his very first title defense.

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Topuria is on O’Malley’s list and not Merab Dvalishvili, the number one bantamweight contender. Upon hearing the call-out, ‘The Machine’ seemed rather upset as he observed from the spectator stands. Thankfully for him, Topuria urged O’Malley to stay in the division.

He asked him to first fight Dvalishvili for his next title defense instead of going for that coveted double champ status. Is Topuria right in asking him to do so? Let us know your thoughts.

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