Going into the fight against Rob Font as an underdog, Chito Vera had a point to prove to everyone counting him out. In what was his first headlining show at UFC Fight Night: Font vs. Vera, he came out on top decisively.
Chito Vera discusses his win over Font
In an appearance on Michael Bisping’s Believe You Me podcast, Chito Vera spoke about his clinical win over Font this past weekend.
“(Font) was really close to poke my eyes multiple times. The referee told him at the beginning,” said Vera about the early struggles in the first round.
Chito spoke about the importance of his conditioning and credited a healthy lifestyle outside of fight camp.
“I’m not the guy that only gets ready for a fight. I get ready because that’s my job to be ready. If nothing is broken, if I’m not injured, if I’m not going through a really bad moment in my life, I should be in the gym every day,” Vera said.
Vera looked to be in the zone in the fight as he toyed with Font’s offense.
“He was coming crazy in the first round. He did come and throw everything with every ounce of his body to knock me out. When you try too hard to hurt somebody, most likely you won’t hurt that person,” added Vera. “It was very easy to see the punches because he was loading so hard that I can see the first and last punch of each combination. I was able to observe it, I was able to roll with them. And a lot of them I was catching, they were on my forearms and stuff like that.”
Unbeknownst to Font’s corner, they ended up giving him some unfavorable advice during the fight.
“I heard his corner yelling ‘make him catch, make him catch’. I was like ‘if you’re planning on me catching so you punch me, good luck tonight!'”
Vera looking for top 5 contenders next
Jumping up three spots in the UFC bantamweight rankings, Vera has now overtaken Font for the fifth-ranked contender. Having fought in the UFC for over eight years now, it seems like Chito is finally getting his due in the game. While he’s still fresh off his win at UFC on ESPN 35, Vera has his eyes set on the three contenders above him.
When asked about who he’d like to face next, Vera specifically mentioned a desire to fight Jose Aldo again. He also brought up the name of Dominick Cruz, who’s currently out of the top five but in the top ten.
It’s uncertain how the top five contenders will be matched up with each other and against champion Aljamain Sterling.
https://youtu.be/ZLvGi7xb6hk
