Marlon Vera is currently a very confused — and frustrated — man.
Just a couple days ago, he thought he was a week away from the biggest fight of his life when he agreed to fight top bantamweight Jimmie Rivera on very short notice. Rivera was initially also game, but Vera found out a day later that his opponent had changed his mind and that the fight was no longer happening.
Fighting one of the best bantamweights in the world with little time to prepare may seem like a daunting task to many, but Vera was ready to go. He was asked to fight Rivera after Bryan Caraway pulled out of the bout with an injury and immediately accepted.
Vera wasn’t concerned about taking the matchup on short notice, because it didn’t feel like a short notice fight to him.
“People say you can’t get ready for Rivera in two weeks,” Vera told BloodyElbow.com. “This is not two weeks of training; this is years of training. After my last fight in Australia, the only thing I did was train, get better, fix mistakes. I’m always in the gym. That’s why I took this fight.
“I came from a country where we really work hard. I came from a family of hard workers. I’m always ready. You can call me on one day’s notice. I can be in the crowd watching UFC and I can step into the cage, because I’m a fighter, 100 percent. I work hard every day for this.”
Of course, Vera was only paired up with Rivera for about 24 hours, and he wasn’t pleased to hear that his opponent withdrew from the contest. Rivera’s two main reasons he chose not to square off with Vera, despite initially accepting the bout, were that he wouldn’t have gotten much out of fighting an unranked opponent and it wouldn’t have been a fair fight.
Vera doesn’t understand Rivera’s first reason, because Rivera chose to fight him over John Dodson, who’s ranked No. 10 at bantamweight, yet was worried about not gaining anything versus Vera and the level of competition he’d be facing.
“It’s really confusing,” he said. “I don’t understand why he picked me and then pulled out of the fight. It’s really crazy. I don’t know what to think of this guy. The only thing I know is this guy is not professional.
“You ask for the unranked guy and then you say that you want to fight the best of the best. And then you put an excuse that Dodson lost to (John) Lineker — but [Lineker]’s in the top three. ‘Oh, Dodson don’t fight nobody, he’s a 125-pounder.’ He’s not a 125-pounder, he fights at 135 pounds. Dodson is one of the guys who put the biggest challenge to Demetrious Johnson, the pound-for-pound king.”
Vera doesn’t think Rivera’s second reason is fair, either. He doesn’t appreciate Rivera’s comments about bullying the Ecuardor native in a potential fight and not wanting to take away much-needed money from him.
“He didn’t talk bad about me, but he put my daughter in this,” he said. “He brought a lot of things to this that he shouldn’t be bringing. I never talk about my opponents’ families when I’m fighting. I was really upset because he was talking about my daughter. You can say, ‘I will kick your ass, I will finish you.’ But you were talking about my daughter, and you really can’t do that.
“This guy said he teaches kids. I also teach kids in the gym. When I teach kids, I tell them that a real man keeps his word. To me, words mean more than a contract. This guy shouldn’t be teaching kids, because he’s not a professional. He’s not a real man. Every single fighter in the world wants to fight. You get a fight and the next day say, ‘I don’t want to fight.’ That’s proof you are not a real man.”
Vera only has one explanation for Rivera’s sudden withdrawal. The 23-year-old believes that Rivera accepted the fight without being aware of who he is, later familiarized himself with Vera and Vera’s past fights, and was surprised with what he saw.
“I think 100 percent he is (scared),” he said. “Not because I’m the best in the division, but probably he accepted the fight without knowing who I am, and then when he watched my clip, he was expecting a tomato can. When he watched the fights, he probably found out I’m not a tomato can. I have two losses in the UFC, but both of those fights were very close.”
Vera doesn’t expect Rivera’s future to be bright.
“All of the things he said is completely bizarre. It’s stupid, and it’s immature,” he said. “All of the things he said show to the world how unprofessional this dude is. What this guy did, that’s why he’s not going to be remembered.”
Vera brought up a few examples to show the difference between Rivera and other fighters: Tony Ferguson agreeing to fight newcomer Lando Vannata after Khabib Nurmagomedov pulled out, Fabricio Werdum accepting an interim title fight against Mark Hunt, and Conor McGregor facing Chad Mendes and Nate Diaz when champions Jose Aldo and Rafael dos Anjos, respectively, got injured.
“That’s why these people are remembered. That’s why people talk about these guys. That’s why these guys are making more money,” Vera said. “That’s why nobody knows who [Rivera] is.”
Vera doesn’t care if he ever fights Rivera in the future. However, despite the possibility of him pulling out again, he would take the fight if the UFC offered it to him. He promised to “make this guy pay” if he ever meets him inside the Octagon.
“I want a real fighter, I want a real man,” he said. “I don’t want excuses and lies.”