Marlon Vera is nothing if not opportunistic.
He has traversed more than 3,500 miles, leaving his family and homeland of Ecuador in pursuit of a dream of fighting in the UFC. November will mark 10 years since becoming the first Ecuadorian fighter in the premier MMA promotion.
And Saturday will mark the culmination of his career, a chance to rematch with Sean O’Malley and try to wrench the bantamweight title from the colorful fan favorite in the UFC 299 main event in Miami.
“I’m strong and ready to go and life is good, man,” Vera, 31, said in a recent interview with the Southern California News Group. “Everything is there, in the right direction, and good things are happening here.”
It has been a remarkable journey for “Chito,” who was 23 when he arrived in Orange County, living with his manager, teaching several classes a week and cleaning the gym – “I just wanted to make $1,000 a month,” he said – in hopes of making a living doing what he loved.
His wife and two young children remained in Ecuador as Vera chased what he admits now was “a gamble.”
“You get emotional thinking about just, like, the fact that 12 years ago, you were wandering around like … at some point, I need to figure something out for my life,” said Vera, who was able to move his wife and kids here and later have another child in 2018.
“And now things are like, well, my dreams have been becoming a reality. And slowly but surely, you just keep achieving things and opening new doors and getting bigger and better.”
Vera (23-8-1) has won five of his past six fights in the UFC, using devastating kicks to knock out former champions Frankie Edgar and Dominick Cruz in the process.
Overall in the UFC, he has won 15 of his 22 fights, the lone blip in the past three years a split-decision loss to title contender Cory Sandhagen. He has finished 11 UFC opponents – snatching submissions holds, pouncing on fallen opponents and dropping elbows, cracking heads and…
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