Marlon Vera thinks the UFC is trying to protect Sean O'Malley.
O’Malley (15-1 MMA, 7-1 UFC), who hasn’t lost since getting stopped by Vera at UFC 252, has knocked out his past three opponents. His impressive run has led to a matchup with perennial contender Pedro Munhoz (19-7 MMA, 9-7 UFC) in July at UFC 276.
Although Vera (21-7-1 MMA, 11-6 UFC) respects Munhoz, he thinks the UFC purposely offered him to O’Malley because of his significant height and reach disadvantage.
“They couldn’t find him a better fight in the top 10,” Vera told Brendan Schaub on “Food Truck Diaries.” “They find the smaller guy with the shorter reach. Everything is to benefit ‘Sugar’ because even if he lost, he’s gonna make an excuse. ‘Oh, I fought a tough guy,’ which who f*cking cares? I’ve beat him. When people come to me about it, I’m like, ‘I don’t need that. I’m not looking for hype, I’m not looking for more followers, I don’t give two f*cks.’ I’m making my money, I’m getting up, I’m going after the belt. I’m not going after the hype. I’m not looking to be cool because I know I’m cool. I know I’m funny, I don’t need to chase that sh*t. When you try too hard, you won’t get it.”
Vera revealed that he was offered a rematch with O’Malley a few fights ago and while he doesn’t see a point in running things back, he was open to it at the time. However, he never heard back.
“The UFC three fights ago offered me this fight,” Vera said. “And I called my coach, and we went like this: ‘Let’s do this.’ Sean Shelby, call him first. Don’t call us, you know what’s up with us. … They called him, and they never called back.”
He continued, “I already beat you. Say whatever you want. I beat you. You want it, you can come get it. You and any f*cking body.”
Vera finds himself in the UFC’s top five bantamweight rankings after scoring back-to-back wins over ex-lightweight champion Frankie Edgar and most recently Rob Font in his first UFC headliner in April.
