Miami, FL — More often than not, you couldn’t even hear the questions being fired Chito Vera’s way during Thursday’s UFC 299 press conference.
Promotional stops can get a little raucous at times, especially for big cards. Look no further than UFC 297’s own pre-fight promotional affair, which sparked a near riot outside the venue due to a lack of seating, and then had a fan rush the stage, ostensibly to meet Sean Strickland.
By definition, these are events geared towards fans, regardless of the term “press conference” being attached. Media Day is for the media, press conferences might have media members present, but they’re basically just a pep rally.
The Chito fans were out in force Thursday, so mission accomplished on that front. And it’s no surprise, after seeing the massive Spanish-language media turnout a day earlier. Vera even returned to the room for a second sitdown with the press, entirely in Spanish. Unheard of for UFC Media Days.
Thursday, Vera (Marlon Vera, properly, but known simply at this point as Chito) practically had to scream his answers over the crowd at points.
“I’m ready to go. I’m healthy, I’m happy. I’ve been doing everything,” opened Vera. “I had the long road, but I’m here, and I’m going to dig deep for that goal.”
When it was pointed out that he’d become a superstar, with the crowd being on hand for him, Vera called it “a genuine opportunity. I worked so hard for this moment. Ten years with the company, and I loved every single second of my career. And I’m going to fight for the UFC gold. I love to be here.”
The long road was something he spoke with Cageside Press about a day earlier.
“I fought all the experienced guys, I fought all the experienced champions. I fought the long road, I had the hardest fights to get to this points in my career,” Vera explained in his English Media Day session. As to whether he preferred that long road, “I don’t know another way,” Vera replied.
Through regional fights in South America, primarily in Peru, and then Mexico, Vera never took an easy fight. “It was never like ‘okay, we’re going to build your record a little bit.’ I don’t have that much of a record, for me it was always getting into the fire, and fighting guys I was supposed to lose [against] pretty much my whole career. That definitely gave me something or made me find something inside me that most people won’t find out, because I went the long road.”
Maybe that’s what resonates with fans. Then there’s the regional support. Miami is a Spanish-speaking hotbed, known for it’s Cuban population but with plenty of representation from other nations. It felt as if all of Ecuador turned out for Chito Vera on Thursday, with plenty of Ecuadorian flags waved, and Chito masks sported by fervent supporters.
It would be easy to call Vera an unlikely star. He’s gruff, curses like a sailor (at least in English, as his Spanish media session was far more PG), and seems as likely to say “suck my…” well you get the idea as say hello to a would-be opponent. Maybe that’s part of the charm: Chito Vera is an unabashed street fighter in a world populated at this point by collegiate athletes. Those rough-around-the-edges characters always seem to resonate.
Of course, opponent and champ Sean O’Malley could be seen as one of those characters himself. But he’s a very different type of star appealing to a very different demographic, one that couldn’t quite outdo Veras fans in terms of decibel level on Thursday.
Instead, it was Chito Vera whose star arrived on Thursday.
