Vancouver — It’s been more than a minute since we saw Chito Vera compete in the UFC.
Vera (23-10-1) hasn’t fought since a loss to Deiveson Figueiredo back in August of 2024 in Abu Dhabi. Ahead of UFC Vancouver, where he returns against Aiemann Zahabi, Vera explained that he came back too soon that night, following his UFC 299 setback against Sean O’Malley.
“I just think it was too quick. And you don’t know that until you’re in the cage.” While it was far from Vera’s first loss, “that one kind of hurts a lot just because I didn’t find myself in it.”
That led to Vera taking a self-imposed sabbatical from the sport. Or at least from competing in a live fight. “I was like, ‘I won’t even pick up the phone. I will train, I will figure out how to get better, but I won’t fight.'”
Vera was actually ready to return in March, got on the Des Moines, Iowa card shortly after, saw his fight pushed back, and then eventually cancelled. “That’s the consequences of having two months more of camp – I broke my rib.”
“That hurt because I was getting into a rhythm that was like ‘f*ck, I’m feeling good, everything feels right’ and then ‘boom!'” Vera added. “The rib breaks.”
As he put it, “something was wrong in the air, in the energy, or everything happens for a reason.” And so after healing up, Vera decided to do what he did when he last lost two in a row. “I’m going to just train very hard, and when they call, they call. And I did that. I didn’t ask for a fight, I didn’t reach out.”
Eventually, the call came to fight Aiemann Zahabi. Who wasn’t a contender when Vera last fought. Not that Vera is overlooking him. “I have so much experience in the UFC. I’ve been here almost 11 years. You can’t just overlook a guy and be like ‘yeah whatever, I’ve fought better guys.’ Because that sh*tty guy, that you called sh*tty, can beat the f*ck out of you on any given night.”
“I treat this fight the same way I treat all the contenders or former champs that I fought. I don’t treat fights like ‘oh this is going to be easy’ or ‘this guy doesn’t have what I have.’ I put myself kind of below in a way, I’m like ‘okay this guy will kick my ass.’ That’s why I trained hard, that’s why I’m disciplined and I do the right things. Saturday night comes, I’m going to fight my ass off.”
Watch the full UFC Vancouver media day appearance by Marlon “Chito” Vera above.
