This past Saturday on the main card of UFC Vancouver, we saw a big time matchup between two top ten bantamweights. Former title challenger Marlon “Chito” Vera (23-11-1) was looking to bounce back after back-to-back losses as he took on surging contender Aiemann Zahabi (14-2).
Vera’s biggest problem throughout his career has been the fact that he’s a slow starter. He almost always gives away the first round and when you’re not fighting five rounds, you put yourself in a massive hole doing that. Vera promised that he would be more aggressive in this fight after changing things with his training.
In the first round, he was able to drop Zahabi with a perfect jab. Zahabi was hurt badly, but all Vera did was seemingly stalk him after rocking him. He didn’t put his foot on the gas to try and get the finish. Only a couple of shots were thrown over the next minute and Zahabi was able to recover.
In the second and third rounds, Vera just didn’t throw enough. He was trying to be very efficient with the shots he was throwing and he was trying to be defensively sound, but the optics all favored Zahabi. It was Zahabi who was throwing with more volume and it was Zahabi who fought with more pressure.
After three rounds, we went to the scorecards and two of the three judges gave the win to Zahabi at UFC Vancouver. I also scored the fight for Zahabi while watching live.
What’s next after UFC Vancouver?
Chito Vera has been very upset about the decision and he’s posted online that the judges robbed him in Canada. Listen, we’ve all seen awful decisions in MMA, but this is not one of them. The majority of media members scoring the fight, scored the fight for Aiemann Zahabi.
If Chito Vera wants to blame anyone for the loss, he needs to look in the mirror. He absolutely should have defeated Aiemann Zahabi when you look at the skills of both fighters. Vera is a better fighter in my opinion, but the man just has no awareness of scoring and optics.
His corner was trying to tell him that you cannot let the fight be close especially with them being in Canada. You’d think that they could get through so he would show some urgency. Instead, all the urgency came from Zahabi and that’s why he won. It’s incredibly frustrating watching Chito Vera because you know he’s so much better than his record shows.
In terms of what’s next after UFC Vancouver, I could see Vera facing someone like Mario Bautista should Bautista lose to Umar Nurmagomedov this upcoming weekend. Another option could be someone like a Marcus McGhee near the back half of the rankings.
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