Aljamain Sterling isn’t the only UFC fighter that heard Marlon “Chito” Vera had a bad camp coming into UFC 299 on Saturday night (March 9th, 2024).
Sterling recently picked Sean O’Malley to beat Marlon Vera in their bantamweight championship fight, largely because he’d heard “Chito” did not have a good camp. “Bad camp” is becoming a bit of a codeword for “fighting injured” — Henry Cejudo had a bad camp (injured groin) at UFC 298, O’Malley had a bad camp (injured rib) for UFC 292.
Vera denied the bad camp rumors, saying there’s no way word would leak out of his private gym. But it turns out Sterling isn’t the only one who’s heard things. O’Malley’s coach Tim Welch has as well.
“I have heard that, and I’ve heard of other people that were sparring him that were beating him up,” Welch said during an interview with Submission Radio. “But really none of that matters. We had a terrible training camp against Aljo and then we went out and knocked him out so that kind of stuff doesn’t matter. It’s not like we’re not going to try harder or any less.”
That being said, Welch did admit it could change the dynamics of the fight if Vera fights cautiously.
“If he did have a bad camp, he might be happy with just going to a decision and losing,” Welch suggested. “As long as he doesn’t get finished, he might be happy with that, if he had a terrible camp.”
“I hope he comes to win, comes to win, comes to try to fu— Sean up and make it a fight. Not make it a boring fight where he’s standing, like I said, going point for point. Because if he does go point for point, it’s like, okay, Sean’s gonna do that. He’s just as long, he’s faster, he’s more accurate. He’s going to win a five round decision then.”
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
