Sean O’Malley by no means needed to depend a previous loss to Marlon “Chito” Vera on his file however he nonetheless received his revenge with a dominant efficiency within the UFC 299 foremost occasion.
If not for Vera’s iron chin and unbreakable will, O’Malley would have nearly assuredly gone house with a end on his file however as a substitute he’ll go away Miami with a lopsided unanimous resolution win. Spherical after spherical, O’Malley blasted away with a devastating arsenal on the toes and by the top of the combat Vera was busted up, bloodied and swelled to the purpose the place it seemed like his face received attacked by a swarm of bees.
The judges scored the combat 50-45, 50-45 and 50-44 with O’Malley efficiently defending his title and erasing any doubt about his superiority within the rivalry with Vera.
“Chito’s as powerful as they get,” O’Malley mentioned about his win. “I assume we will all agree I’m undefeated nonetheless.”
It was a technical masterpiece from O’Malley as he beat Vera in each side of the hanging sport with out the combat ever hitting the ground over 5 rounds.
A sniper from the surface, O’Malley dedicated to his kicking sport after which reaching with a protracted jab that stored discovering a house on Vera’s chin. O’Malley additionally jabbed to the physique to maintain Vera guessing however by no means overextended himself to catch a possible knockout counter punch coming again at him from the challenger.
O’Malley constantly diverse his assaults, going up prime to the pinnacle with punches and kicks then digging to the physique once more. Vera simply appeared to be a step behind O’Malley, who was the quicker and extra correct striker on the toes.
With simply over a minute left within the second spherical, O’Malley uncorked a large knee strike up the center that blasted Vere and snapped his head again in a violent movement. Nonetheless, Vera stayed stoic within the face of hazard however O’Malley was simply selecting him aside and going through little resistance to his offensive onslaught.
“I felt one thing in his face break,” O’Malley mentioned in regards to the knee that blasted Vera. “I felt like one thing snapped.”
Vera struggled to make O’Malley pay for his excessive quantity hanging assault and by the halfway level of the third spherical, he had a minimize and important swelling beneath his proper eye from all of the injury finished. O’Malley didn’t decelerate and by no means gave an inch as he continued to chip away at Vera in each change.
Realizing that point was operating out on him, Vera lastly began getting extra aggressive whereas making an attempt to make it a gritty combat, which is the place he had his finest likelihood to win. Vera related with just a few stiff photographs, which resulted in blood trickling out of O’Malley’s nostril however the champion escaped earlier than he ever ate something he couldn’t deal with.
Even with Vera having his finest moments within the combat, O’Malley was nonetheless the much better striker, particularly within the numbers sport the place he was simply outlanding his opponent by a large margin.
With 5 minutes remaining, O’Malley didn’t take his foot off the gasoline as he stored coming after Vera together with a proper hand that stung Vera with a fist on to his eye. Vera started overlaying up simply making an attempt to keep away from a possible end with O’Malley stalking him throughout the octagon.
O’Malley was doing something however enjoying it secure as he continued to search for the knockout however Vera simply refused to go down. It was a superb efficiency from O’Malley from begin to end as he decimated the one particular person to ever put a loss on his file.
Vera gave credit score to O’Malley on a job properly finished however promised that this received’t be the final time he’ll compete for UFC gold earlier than his profession is over.
“I’ll be again,” Vera mentioned. “I’ll be champion in the future. O’Malley, I all the time mentioned he was a terrific fighter. We will discuss s*** to one another, however I do know he’s a great striker. I attempted to remain toe-to-toe with him to catch him. He did properly. He did higher than me. We’ll be again.”
So far as what’s subsequent for O’Malley, he’s nonetheless holding out hope that the UFC will enable him to vary divisions and search a second title so as to add to his assortment nevertheless it’s powerful to think about that can occur with prime ranked challenger Merab Dvalishvili ready within the wings.
“Dana [White], get me a jet to Spain. I’m coming for Ilia Topuria,” O’Malley shouted. “I need Ilia, give me Ilia. He’s a scary f****** dude. Ilia excites me, going up a weight class excites me.
“Actually, I’m right here for no matter, When you guys need me to knock out Merab, I’ll do this, too however Ilia’s an thrilling combat for the individuals.”
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