Marlon Vera inside the octagon following his UFC 252 win over Sean O'Malley.
Marlon Vera reveals Petr Yan ‘declined the fight’ against him for this which led to Dominick Cruz matchup
Marlon Vera was supposed to headline this Saturday’s card against Petr Yan.
Vera and Yan had been going back-and-forth against one another on social media as both men have been angling for a fight. According to Vera, the UFC then offered the fight to him but the Russian turned it down which then led to the promotion offering him the Dominick Cruz fight which will end up headlining UFC San Diego this weekend.
“Petr Yan, that fat c***, declined the fight because he was eating pizza in Italy, and he said, ‘Oh, I don’t have time to make the weight or I don’t have time to prepare,’” Vera said Monday on The MMA Hour. “If I’m that easy money, why don’t you just say, ‘F*** it, I finish my slice and kick your ass.’ But he declined the fight — he said he wants to fight in November, October, so I was like, ‘You ain’t that cool to [wait] for you, buddy.’ So I was like, I want action. I want to fight. I want to make money. Let’s go. They went, ‘Well, he declined, you want to fight Dominick Cruz?’ I was like, sure, why not?
“Why am I going to lie? There’s no lies. When you speak the truth, you don’t need to remember anything,” Vera continued. “So yeah, that’s what happened. That’s not s*** talking. He just didn’t have the time. He was doing a little trip in Europe. Good for him, dude. Good for him.”
Ultimately, the UFC then booked Petr Yan vs. Sean O’Malley, which Marlon Vera doesn’t care about.
Instead, he says he needs to focus on Cruz as Marlon Vera knows if he gets his hand raised he could very well be fighting for UFC gold next time out.
“Just as equal,” Vera said about the comparison between Cruz and Yan. “There’s no better, no less. Dominick’s a little older, let’s keep it real. He probably won’t keep up the way Yan will. But it’s still a fist fight, dude. You can break your pinky and you’re f*****. A cut can change a fight. So I’m not thinking this is going to be any easier. I’m f****** waking up every day thinking this is going to be the hardest, bloodiest fight of my life, but I think that about every single guy.”
