Vancouver – It’s been over a minute since we saw Chito Vera compete in the UFC.
Vera (23-10-1) has not fought since losing to Deiveson Figueiredo in August 2024 in Abu Dhabi. Ahead of UFC Vancouver, where he returns against Aiemann Zahabi, Vera explained that he returned too early that night following his UFC 299 setback against Sean O’Malley.
“I just think it was too fast. And you don’t know that until you’re in the cage.” While it was far from Vera’s first loss, “that hurts a lot just because I didn’t find myself in it.”
That led to Vera taking a self-imposed sabbatical from the sport. Or at least by participating in a live fight. “I was like, ‘I’m not even going to answer the phone. I’m going to train, I’m going to figure out how to get better, but I’m not going to fight.'”
Vera was actually set to return in March, was carded out of Des Moines, Iowa shortly after, saw his fight pushed back and ultimately canceled. “These are the consequences of two more months of camping: I broke my rib.”
“That hurt because I got into a rhythm that was like ‘f*ck, I feel good, everything feels good’ and then ‘boom!’” Vera added. “The rib breaks.”
As he put it: “There was something wrong in the air, in the energy, or everything happens for a reason.” And so, after Vera was healed, she decided to do what he did the last time he lost two in a row. “I’m just going to train really hard, and if they call, they call. And that’s what I did. I didn’t ask for a fight, I didn’t make any contact.”
Finally the call came to fight Aiemann Zahabi. Who wasn’t a contender when Vera last fought? Not that Vera overlooks him. “I have so much experience in the UFC. I’ve been here almost 11 years. You can’t just overlook someone and say, ‘Yeah, whatever, I’ve fought better guys.’ Because that guy you called sh*tty can beat the hell out of you every night.”
“I treat this fight the same way I treat any contender or former champion I’ve fought. I don’t treat fights like ‘oh, this is going to be easy’ or ‘this guy doesn’t have what I have.’ I put myself a little bit below in a way, I thought, ‘Okay, this guy is going to beat me up.’ That’s why I trained hard, that’s why I’m disciplined and why I do the right things. Saturday night comes, I’m going to fight my ass off.
Watch Marlon “Chito” Vera’s full UFC Vancouver media day appearance above.
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