The stellar UFC 299 event was capped off by a rematch between two of bantamweight’s best, seeing Sean O’Malley achieving vengeance for his 2020 loss to Chito Vera.
Sean O’Malley vs. Chito Vera Preview
Sean O’Malley came into the fight off the heels of a career-defining win against then-champion Aljamain Sterling at UFC 292. A second round knockout saw O’Malley capture gold in dramatic fashion, extending his undefeated streak to six. O’Malley’s 17-1 record coming into this fight is one to marvel at, but that one blemish on his record comes against the man he faces Saturday night. After an injury led to an first-round stoppage in their 2020 fight, O’Malley has been on a war path to the top, with his sights set on Marlon “Chito” Vera since. It’s not a coincidence that the first defense of his title comes against the only man to beat him, as O’Malley wants to prove that he is the better fighter and avenge his lone loss.
Marlon “Chito” Vera has had a vastly different path to the title. “Chito” has just entered his 10th year in the promotion, having mixed success when first joining. After a 4-4 start to his UFC career, Vera found his footing in the promotion and is 11-3 since 2018. With a four-fight and five fight win streak in that time frame, Vera has slowly worked his way to the top of the divison. Despite his recent success, a loss to Cory Sandhagen in March of last year seemigly set Vera back. Many believed that Chito would need another long win streak to reach his title dreams. That all changed when his old foe, Sean O’Malley, won the title back in August. The new champion immediately set his eyes on vengeance, leaving Chito to recieve a title shot off a win over Pedro Munhoz on the same night that O’Malley captured gold.
Fight Recap
The fight started off with both men exchanging heavy kicks from range, with Chito looking for the body and O’Malley attacking the legs. As the round went later, O’Malley started to work his boxing in and found his range quick, outstriking Chito from range with a mixed attack.
This continued for the next two rounds, with O’Malley comfortably winning and more than doubling Chito’s strikes through three rounds.
The fourth round saw Vera wake up a bit, nearly evening out O’Malley’s strikes but still being a step behind. He started to rush forward with big combos and it was clearly his best round, but still likely not enough to secure the round.
O’Malley had Vera on the ropes to start the fifth round, dominating him with his pressure and striking. This round may have been O’Malley’s best, as he was landing everything and had Chito nearly out of there. Vera stayed tough and survived, but was clearly beaten and bruised by the final bell.
The scorecards read 50-45, 50-45, and 50-44 to give the champion his belt back in a dominating performance. Sean O’Malley is expected to face Merab Dvalishvili next, but called out Ilia Topuria for a champion vs. champion fight later this year.
UFC Fighters React to Sean O’Malley Dominating Chito Vera
Featured Image Credit to Embed from Getty Images
