Marlon
Vera and his team had a pretty good idea that he could finish
Dominick
Cruz in emphatic fashion.
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In fact, Vera’s coach, Jason Parillo, sent the fighter an image
early in the week foreshadowing the head kick knockout that would
end Cruz’s night in the UFC on ESPN 41 headliner at Pechanga Arena
in San Diego on Saturday night.
“Like six days ago, my coach sent a picture,” Vera said at
Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “It was literally [Pedro]
Munhoz kicking his body [in their fight at UFC 269], and his head
was dipping all the way down. He didn’t text anything, just sent me
the picture. I picked it up like he’s giving me a message. And in
the third round he told me, ‘Punch in the air, have him dip, and
throw a f—ing haymaker.’ And I was like, ‘Thank you, coach.’”
When his opponent dipped his head, Vera landed a vicious head kick
that sent Cruz face first to the canvas, and a few follow-up shots
sealed the victory at the 2:17 mark of Round 4. While Cruz had the
better volume in the bout, Vera landed the more powerful shots —
including a trio of knockdowns. “Chito” knew he simply had to wait
for the right opportunity.
“I was just being patient, I was taking my time. I dropped him in
the first round, and when I dropped him I didn’t go crazy. I didn’t
try to chase the finish, I never chase the finish. I don’t have any
problems standing in front of you and finding those openings,” he
said.
While Cruz is lauded for his unorthodox movement and striking, Vera
wasn’t especially impressed by the style entering the fight.
“Honestly, me and my team, we really think the way he fights is
kind of very low level,” Vera said. “There’s no base, there’s no
good stance, all that movement side to side — we told each other,
‘We have to kick this guy’s ass.’ But by saying that, you put a lot
of pressure on yourself.
“I just believe that his style is not the best style for MMA. Maybe
for boxing it can work better, but for MMA you’ve got way too many
weapons going. What he does well, he mixes takedowns with that
movement. That’s when he’s successful. But I was like, it’s going
to be hard for him to take me down, so we were pretty confident,
but we knew this fight wasn’t easy.”
Vera adds Cruz to a growing resume that also includes triumphs over
the likes of Rob Font,
Frankie
Edgar and Sean
O’Malley. Vera is in his peak years, and he plans on going as
far as he can in the bantamweight division. The win over Cruz was
just the fruits of his labor.
“Everything I did leading to this fight has paid off – hard work,
staying consistent, staying focused, don’t be f—ing around in the
media,” Vera said. “Just be consistent. These are the best years of
my life ahead of me right now. Why not be all in? … Those
performances don’t happen like that if you’re just going halfway.
I’m all in.”