UFC 299 Preview
The UFC will be invading the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida on Saturday, March 9th for UFC 299. The main event will be a rematch for the bantamweight title between champion Sean O’Malley and the only fighter to defeat him, #5 Marlon Vera.
O’Malley won the title in his last fight in August at UFC 292 with a second round TKO of Aljamain Sterling. Vera defeated O’ Malley by first round TKO at UFC 252 in 2020, but the champion is no bothered by the loss.
“Yeah, that fight never necessarily bothered me,” O’Malley said. “Look where I’m at now. That fight plays out a different way, I win that fight, and then next fight I fight somebody I wasn’t ready for, and I lose, and my career completely plays out differently. So I go out there and knock out Thomas Almeida like seven times with a beautiful performance, so I’m just grateful for everything that’s happened, but yeah, that fight has never really bothered me. I’m excited to go out there and do what I was going to do in that first fight.”
While O’ Malley has been vocal about the loss to Vera not being real, he does respect the challenge that Vera will bring on Saturday. “His durability,” O’Malley commented on Vera. “He’s hard to put away. If you can’t put him away, you better be ready to go for 25 minutes, so I plan on a 25-minute war.”
But he still has the same opinion of the first fight. “If he were to beat me, he’d beat me once,” O’Malley said. “It’s that simple.”
Aside from his belief that he won the first fight, O’Malley knew that becoming champion would mean a rematch with Vera. “There was more deserving opponents, but the biggest fight as far as pay-per-view, the storyline, it was Chito Vera, 100%”, O’Malley said.
“This fight is going to play out the way the first fight was about to play out.”
Vera is 5-2 since defeating O’Malley and most recently defeated Pedro Munhoz by unanimous decision at UFC 292 in August. The two have no bad blood lost leading into this fight and Vera has not hesitated to voice his opinion of O’Malley.
“I get it. One of his main tools is getting in people’s heads,” Vera said. “Good luck with that. I’m going to f*** you up. I’m prepared for Saturday night. So he’s trying to start things. Yesterday, he asked me if I was ready to lose the fight. They didn’t catch my answer. I would have loved the camera to catch what I said back to him, but they only got one side. But that’s just one tool to the game. I’m ready for a fight. My mind is in the right place and I’m going to kick his ass.”
The Ecuadorian fighter continued, “I don’t give two f*cks about what he’s doing, who he talks for,” Vera said. “I focus [on] myself, I focus [on] my schedule, my training, my body, my mind and whatever he’s doing, I don’t give two f**ks about him or his life.”
Vera concluded, “I’m going to get in there and I’m going to drill a hole through his face. Then what? There’s no talking in there. I know his corner likes to [talk] when we’re in there, but I would love my corner to give me advice to win the fight. If my corner is more concerned about talking sh*t about my opponent and they don’t tell me what to do, I wouldn’t be with those people. But the whole circle: I mean it’s just like, it’s all a full rainbow in there, right? And we know what it stands for these days.”
The 31-year-old made his UFC debut in 2014 and is 15-7 having found the most success in his last 14 fights. Aside from Munhoz and O’Malley, he has key wins over Dominick Cruz, Rob Font and Frankie Edgar. He has never been finished and has fought five rounds only once, losing a split decision to top contender Corey Sandhagen. If Vera gets a second win over O’Malley, how soon does the UFC book a trilogy fight?
The Rest of the Main Card:
Lightweight - #3 Dustin Poirier vs. #12 Benoît Saint Denis
Welterweight - #13 Kevin Holland vs. Michael Page
Welterweight - #4 Gilbert Burns vs. #11 Jack Della Maddalena
Bantamweight - #4 Petr Yan vs. #7Song Yadong
ESPN+ Prelims:
Heavyweight - #5 Curtis Blaydes vs. - #7 Jailton Almeida
Women's Flyweight - #4 Katlyn Cerminara vs. #6 Maycee Barber
Lightweight - #6 Mateusz Gamrot vs. #11 Rafael dos Anjos
Bantamweight - #13 Pedro Munhoz vs. Kyler Phillips
ESPN + Early Prelims:
Light Heavyweight - Ion Cuțelaba vs. Philipe Lins
Middleweight - Michel Pereira vs. Michał Oleksiejczuk
Heavyweight - Robelis Despaigne vs. Josh Parisian
Catchweight (127 lb) - C.J. Vergara vs. Assu Almabayev
Women's Flyweight - Joanne Wood vs. Maryna Moroz
