A lot of folks believe Marlon Vera demonstrated at UFC 252 why he was predicted to be Sean O’Malley’s toughest test to date. But, despite the fact O’Malley has incurred his first loss at the hands, feet and elbows of Vera, “Sugar” claims the rugged vet will never be more than a “journeyman”.
O’Malley takes poke at Vera’s skills
When it was announced that Vera was going to face O’Malley at UFC 252, people in the know understood that it could be a tough fight for “Sugar”. Vera has been on an impressive run in recent years, and his only loss since February, 2018, was against rising bantamweight, Song Yadong.
Some folks, however, scored that fight for Vera.
Well, as you likely know, Vera stopped O’Malley in the first round at UFC 252. O’Malley incurred some sort of issue with his leg, after taking some leg kicks, and Vera finished the deal.
But, if you were expecting O’Malley to heap praise on Vera, following his win, think again. During a recent episode of the podcast he does with Tim Welch, O’Malley said this about the loss and Vera (quotes via MMA Fighting).
“Let’s look at his career in five years, let’s look at mine,” O’Malley said. “I’m going to be f**king world champion, he’s going to be a f**king journeyman.
That’s just what his style is. He wins some, he loses some. He’s slow, but he’s gritty, so he’s going to be able to finish some people after they beat him up for a while.
The way his pace was, super slow like that, and I was exploding into shots, I wasn’t gonna get tired and I was just gonna beat his ass.
“I don’t know if I was gonna get a finish in that first round. He was tough and he was patient, which was fine, because that’s easier for me, he wasn’t doing anything, he was standing there.
It f**king sucks.”
O’Malley also took a poke at Vera for his emotional, post-fight celebration.
“Dude, I knock out Eddie Wineland, I peace,” O’Malley said. “That was easy. He gets lucky and beats me and jumps up like he just f**king won the lottery, that just showed me what kind of a b*tch he was.”
Reaction?
It will be interesting to see how O’Malley’s comments here are received by MMA fans in general. On one hand, yes, you can make the argument that if O’Malley and Vera fought, say five times, O’Malley might win three or four of those bouts.
But, his comments about Vera being “lucky” will likely feed into the narrative some of his boosters have been making, which doesn’t account for the kicks Vera scored.
Now it will be interesting to see if Vera can in fact, move into top contender status.