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The Takedown | UFC 252: Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera was right – doubt him now, if you dare, after shutting down Sean O’Malley
- Bookmakers and fans alike might have taken a few too many gulps of the O’Malley Kool-Aid
- ‘I’m on seven-fight win streak. I don’t care what they say, I beat the Chinese guy,’ says Chito, who should’ve been given more credit
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Why you can trust SCMP
Marlon “Chito” Vera’s first-round TKO victory over Sean O’Malley in Saturday’s UFC 252 co-main event registered as a significant upset, and certainly seemed to catch most viewers by surprise.
Perhaps it shouldn’t have.
In the weeks leading up to his fight with the unbeaten, bantamweight super-prospect O’Malley, Vera was unwavering in his self belief. At every opportunity, he guaranteed fans that it was his foe who was in over his head, and not the other way around.
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“I just see myself going in there and f****** the guy up,” Vera said bluntly during UFC 252’s virtual, pre-fight media day. “I’m feeling good. I’m feeling confident.”
It was the kind of talk that was easy to dismiss as pre-fight sabre-rattling, but in hindsight, maybe we should have taken it more seriously. A quick scan of Vera’s record is all it would have taken to add some credibility to his claims.
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