Sean O’Malley put on one of the most impressive championship performances in UFC history at UFC 299, in Miami, dominating ‘Chito’ Vera over 25 minutes of action.
O’Malley, who was making the first defense of his title reign, showcased his complete skill set and found his flow state early in the fight, causing Vera concern from the first round.
Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera is a notoriously slow starter, but he came out in the first round faster than usual. Despite that, the gulf in quality between his and O’Malley’s striking became evident as the round went on, and ‘Suga’ Sean began having his way on the feet.
The following rounds painted a similar picture, as the Ecuadorian struggled to get into the fight as he just couldn’t compete with the timing and elusiveness of the 29-year-old champion. Marlon Vera has never been dropped or finished in a UFC outing, but after eating a hellacious knee in round two, it seemed as though that was going to change.
As the fight went deeper into the championship rounds, Vera’s face became less recognizable as it began leaking blood from every direction, with his nose clearly broken.
A few late rallies from Vera weren’t enough to test the bantamweight champion, but even getting to the scorecards was a success for ‘Chito’.
All three judges deemed him to have lost all five rounds, with Sal D’amato being the only judge of the three to score the final round a 10-8.
Sean O’Malley calls for champion vs champion fight in Spain
Following Ilia Topuria’s blockbuster knockout of Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298, the UFC has been rumored to be heading to Spain for the very first time, for UFC 307.
Featherweight champion, Topuria, and bantamweight champion, O’Malley had a few runnings before Topuria became champion. Prior to Topuria’s upset win over Volkanovski, O’Malley made it clear that was a matchup he wanted in the not-too-distant future.
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With Topuria holding his end of the bargain, it was just down to O’Malley to beat Vera for this to become a real possibility.
In his UFC 299 Octagon interview with Joe Rogan, Sean O’Malley once again called ‘El Matador’s’ name and told UFC president, Dana White, to fire up the private jet for a showdown in Spain.
“Dana give me a jet to Spain baby I’m coming for Ilia Topuria. And if he doesn’t want it, nah f**k it, I want Ilia, give me Ilia.
“He’s a scary f*****g dude, Ilia excites me going up a weight class excites me, but honestly, I’m here for whatever, if you guys want me to knockout Merab I’ll do that too, but Ilia is an exciting fight for the people.”