UFC 299 title challenger Marlon Vera: Jose Aldo loss 'best mistake of my life'

Losing to Jose Aldo was the best thing that could happen to Marlon Vera.

After handing Sean O’Malley his first and only career loss in August 2020, Vera got a big opportunity against former champion Aldo at the end of the year. After rallying to win Round 2, Vera was held down for all of Round 3, losing the fight by unanimous decision.

Vera (21-8-1 MMA, 15-7 UFC) says he made a costly mistake to start the final round, and was able to take very valuable lessons from that loss.

“That loss hurt me so much because watching on TV is something, but being in there, like the first round, I was calculating, I was trying to figure out his speed, I was trying to see his body shots,” Vera told Kevin Iole. “Second round, I’m 100 percent sure I won that round, and leaving the second round, at the end of the second round, he was so tired and so overwhelmed.

“I can feel his energy. He was like, ‘Oh, I’m going to lose again, man. I’m done,’ and I got so cocky and arrogant, and I made a childish mistake on just rushing around the cage and throwing a haymaker for no reason. I don’t even fight like that. That cost me the fight.”

Vera since has won five of his past six – including knockouts of former champs Frankie Edgar and Dominick Cruz. His run led to his first-career title shot, where he rematches bantamweight champion O’Malley (17-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) in the UFC 299 headliner March 9 at Kaseya Center in Miami.

“Losing like that really hurt,” Vera said. “I went to a dark place. I was hard on myself. It was depressing … That was 1,001 percent on me. I made the biggest mistake of my life, but it was also the best mistake of my life because it taught me so much in the long run.

“That’s why you saw my career the way it turned because I was like, you have to be cautious of everything at all times. It just taught me so many things. That loss, I would say it could be the best loss of my career, and I’m not a hater. Why not (have that lesson) against a legend like Jose Aldo?”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 299.