You didn’t have to watch Marlon Vera vs. David Martinez to understand exactly what happened at UFC Mexico City.
“Chito” did it again.
In his fourth consecutive loss, Vera failed to open up. Inhumanly durable and blessed with god-given knockout power, Vera just doesn’t throw that many strikes. It’s not like he doesn’t know how either — we’re talking about a southpaw kickboxer with a really dextrous left leg and one of the best boxing coaches in the sport. If I took the time to write out each and every kind of strike with which Vera has wounded an opponent at some point, we would be here for quite a while. He has a deep bag of tricks that is so rarely opened!
This bout followed the same general path as other recent and not-so-recent losses to great Bantamweights. Vera can walk through punches and kicks with little reaction, but he won’t proactively attack very often. By the time he heats up, Vera is down on the scorecards and in need of a finish or at least a massive moment.
There was a brief period when it really worked. Vera smoked Dominick Cruz and Frankie Edgar late in their respective fights, and he hurt Rob Font enough that he clearly won the decision despite throwing about half as many punches. The most recent of those wins came in August 2022, however, and since then Vera has lost five of six.
This latest loss is particularly frustrating despite its predictability. Vera came into the fight saying all the right things, talking about how he was entirely focused on letting loose and how winning a decision in Mexico would be impossible. Not only did Vera say all of the correct words in the lead-up, his corner always gives him great advice. A quick glance at his Instagram page will consistently show Vera putting in hours of roadwork or a dozen live sparring rounds. There’s no doubt he puts in the work and has the right ideas in mind.
Then, he’ll corner Martinez against the fence while down on the punch count and just … let him off the cage. Even down in the third, Vera didn’t really turn it up until the closing minute. It’s enough to invoke rage in a fairly impartial viewer, so I cannot imagine how irritated Vera’s team must be to continually go through the same song and dance.
I can imagine Vera’s own emotions, however. Back in May 2020, Vera refused to shake Song Yadong’s hand after losing a close decision, stormed out of the cage, and cursed about it on Twitter for days. Having suffered four or five more of these competitive losses since then, Vera is no longer flying off in a fit of anger.
He instead looks exasperated, both tired of and accustomed to losing this exact fight.
