Marlon Vera feels he deserves a title shot but will wait to see how the cards fall.
Marlon Vera finds himself in an interesting position within the UFC bantamweight division. His last win over Dominick Cruz might have put him into title contention but there are a few factors that could be standing in the way. Vera is sitting in the number five spot in the rankings, but there are a few fighters ahead of him that have fights coming up. One of which is the UFC 280 matchup between Sean O’Malley and Petr Yan, the outcome of this bout could have an effect on what happens with Vera next.
UFC 280 which takes place on Oct. 22 will feature two important bantamweight fights. The title fight between Aljamain Sterling and former champion TJ Dillashaw is one. That fight must first play out before anyone else gets a title shot. The other is O’Malley vs. Yan. If O’Malley wins he could very well be next for the title. O’Malley is currently ranked 12th in the division but his popularity could allow him to jump the line. Vera, who holds a win over O’Malley was asked about the possibility of O’Malley jumping his while a guest on the Submission Radio podcast.
“There’s nothing I can really do, right? I can get mad, I can say f–k you, I can say release me, but it is the way of fight. I feel like they (the UFC) will take care of me,” he said. “I feel like I’m possible to fight for the belt right away. So it all really matters what the UFC want to do? And we’ll see Octobet 22, I’ll be ready, it’s all I know. And you know, we saw this in the past, no one really knows what’s going to happen and it just matters of how the cards are being played. And we’ll see October 22, who won the title fight and we’ll see what happened between O’Malley and Yan.”
Marlon Vera believes the UFC would not award Yan a title shot by beating O’Malley
If O’Malley wins in Abu Dhabi he could get a title shot, if Yan wins, Vera thinks not so much. Vera says that Yan declined to fight him and therefore should not be rewarded.
“Yan declined to fight me so even if Yan wins the UFC will remember that. They do remember these things, he declined to fight and then will be like, ‘hey, you decline to fight. You took a lower opponent guy, f–k off’ and if O’Malley wins, good for him, you beat the number one contender. Right now that’s the highest ranked guy, you beat number one you fight for the belt. That’s how it works right?” he said. “I have a win over him so we’ll see. Either they make him fight again, or they give him the title shot, or they give it to me. Who f–king knows I really don’t give a f–k.”
There are a lot of factors that will go into deciding who will fight for the 135-pound belt next. If Vera does not receive the next shot, he would be open to facing Cory Sandhagen who just won his UFC Vegas 60 bout against Song Yadong.
Watch the entire interview here:
