Marlon “Chito” Vera is set to face Sean O’Malley for the bantamweight title at UFC 299 this Saturday, March 9th. It’s the biggest fight of his career, but is Vera coming in compromised?
That may be the case, according to former 135 pound champ Aljamain Sterling. In a new video on his YouTube channel, “Funkmaster” shared some disquieting new that may signal a tough night ahead for “Chito” and his fans.
“The only thing I’m concerned about is I heard, I’m hearing through the grapevine that he didn’t really have a great camp, from a lot of guys that trained with Chito,” Sterling said. “I don’t know how true that is. So with that said, I’m leaning towards O’Malley to get it done.”
We’re starting to hear more and more about ‘bad camps’ … Henry Cejudo had a bad camp coming into his UFC 298 fight against Merab Dvalishvili. We later learned that meant he had an injured groin and wasn’t able to train like he wanted to. Sean O’Malley had a bad camp for Aljamain Sterling at UFC 292, where an injured rib meant no grappling for weeks.
“Suga” would overcome that and knock “Funkmaster” out in the second round, so ‘bad camps’ don’t always translate to losses. Other times, they mean a fighter’s shoulder is regularly dislocating in training and they’re coming in barely functional.
It’s safe to imply that a ‘bad camp’ means some injury, some behind-the-scenes issue that’s stopping a fighter from being able to train like they normally would. It’s certainly not something you want to hear about a main event fighter on the eve of their championship bout.
Past the camp issues, Sterling suggested size is on O’Malley’s side and will help him … if his cardio holds up through rounds four and five.
“I do wonder if that’s going to be the difference, in the later rounds,” Sterling said. “Will O’Malley start to taper off and that’s where Chito gets going with the goods? Cuz early on, O’Malley’s dangerous. The knees, the footwork, the lateral footwork. Try catching a chicken that’s moving all over the place. That’s O’Malley. Want to take him down? Good luck. Even if he doesn’t snipe you, you have to be cognizant of that, that’s what he’s looking for.”
“If he doesn’t get tired, he beats a lot of guys,” Sterling concluded. “But it’s how long can he do that in a 25 minute fight?”
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
