Men’s Bantamweights
Marlon
Vera (23-10-1; 15-9 UFC) vs. Aiemann
Zahabi (13-2; 7-2 UFC)
Odds: Zahabi (-130); Vera (+110)
“Chito” Vera will seek to avoid the first three-fight skid of his
career and slow Zahabi’s shocking resurgence in this bantamweight
feature fight.
Vera is in some ways an overachiever. An aggressive, blood-and-guts
striker with a sneakily effective grappling game, he has always
been entertaining but seemed to be outclassed and outgunned by
top-tier bantamweights, and seemed destined to go down as a fan
favorite who spent a lot of time in the Top 15 but never quite
graduated to full-on title contention.
Thanks in part to a nice run of five wins in six fights, and in
greater part to a weird injury-aided victory over Sean
O’Malley, Vera did in fact fight for a belt. The rematch with
O’Malley didn’t go well, and after losing his next fight to
Deiveson Figueiredo, he has now dropped three of four.
Vera is capable of technically sound kickboxing, but has a
brawler’s heart and mind. It makes for fun viewing, but means that
he takes a ton of damage even when he wins, and calmer, more
disciplined strikers like O’Malley, Sandhagen and Jose Aldo have
given him fits. His wrestling is effective but underused, which is
a shame because his ground strikes are frightening and his
submission game is very underrated: Vera was actually more of a
submission specialist early in his career in South America.
Zahabi is of course the younger brother of Tristar Gym head man
Firas Zahabi, and he is in some ways the platonic ideal of that
camp: a well-conditioned, well-rounded martial artist with a
composed approach. He is on a six-fight win streak in one of the
UFC’s toughest divisions, which is surprising not just for the
success but the work rate; Zahabi used to be a “one fight every two
years” curiosity, and it seemed more likely he would be out of the
sport entirely by now than a rising contender just shy of his 38th
birthday.
Zahabi may be five years older than Vera, but the disparity in
mileage is stark. My preview co-host Keith compared the wear and
tear on their bodies to an NFL running back versus an NFL
quarterback, and that may not even go far enough; Zahabi’s level of
damage may be closer to a kicker when compared to Vera.
Even if neither man is particularly in physical decline, however,
the style matchup makes me lean towards Zahabi. He is exactly the
kind of patient counter striker who can take advantage of Vera’s
aggression and defensive lapses on the feet, and even if Vera
decides to dust off his double-leg for this one, Zahabi is a solid
wrestler and dangerous grappler. Add in what is likely to be a
vocal crowd in favor of the Canadian, and the possibility of some
competitive, difficult to score rounds, and the pick is for Zahabi
to win a decision in a fun scrap.
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Holland vs. Malott
Vera vs. Zahabi
Fiorot vs. Jasudavicius
Gibson vs. Aori
Nelson vs. Frevola
The Prelims
