Sean O’Malley batters Marlon Vera for five rounds, makes first defense of title in UFC 299 main event
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returned to us tonight, March 9, 2024, for UFC 299, a 14-fight card going down from the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida.
Headlining the event was bantamweight championship rematch between Sean O’Malley (18-1, 1 NC) and the only man to ever defeat him, no. 5 ranked Marlon Vera (23-9-1).
Going into their first fight O’Malley was 12-0 as a professional, while Vera was 17-6-1 coming off a disputed decision defeat to Song Yadong up at 145 lbs. As history shows, Vera won the fight via TKO at 4:40 of round one after O’Malley’s leg was injured.
Since then however O’Malley had gone 5-0 (1 NC) with impressive wins over a pair of former champions in Petr Yan (SD) and Aljamain Sterling (TKO).
Vera on the other hand had gone 5-2 since their first encounter back in 2020 with wins over former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar (KO), no. 9 ranked Rob Font (UD), former bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz (KO), and no. 13 ranked Pedro Munhoz (UD).
Continue reading to see how our bantamweight championship main event went down:
Official Result: Sean O’Malley def. Marlon Vera via unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 50-44)
O’Malley had a good opening round, landing a couple early leg kicks before landing a spinning back kick about one minute in. He landed a hard round kick to the body of Vera immediately following, but didn’t do much for the next couple minutes as he downloads information.
O’Malley began to really make his reads and feinted a lot midway through round one, landing a splitting right hand about three minutes in. O’Malley then started going to the body of Vera successfully with his straight right and lefts.
O’Malley’s striking continued to impress in round two, handily piecing the challenger up with his wide array of attack. He landed a vicious knee up the middle, cracking the head of Vera with severe impact, though Vera remained unfazed. O’Malley swarmed Vera from here, but pulled back after a few combinations in attempt to not blow his wad.
O’Malley then became the first man to ever drop Vera, doing so with a straight punch later on in the second.
Vera continued to struggle on the feet in the middle stretch, getting pieced up with straight punches including jabs and crosses to both his head and body, and from both stances.
By this point O’Malley had out-struck Vera by more than twice Vera’s landed strikes and was about to enter the first fourth round in his entire 20-fight career.
Round four was Vera’s best yet, as he was able to back O’Malley up and land a lot of solid punches in bunches, as well as some hard kicks. O’Malley still landed a lot of his own, and still out-struck Vera in the fourth, but the margin was much closer.
O’Malley really started to beat Vera down in the fifth and final round, this was a truly masterful performance by him. Vera continued coming forward with a striking attack, but was ultimately unsuccessful with it as O’Malley’s defense is on another level; his offense is too, this 29 year old champion is truly talented.
Marlon Vera was a dangerous test for O’Malley; he’s the most durable guy in the division, he’d never been finished, or even dropped before. Vera’s fought guys like John Lineker, Jose Aldo, Cory Sandhagen, Rob Font, and Song Yadong amongst others, and he’d never hit the canvas courtesy of a strike.
Vera also makes better adjustments late in the fight better than the vast majority of his peers, and he did put it on O’Malley in the fourth and a little in the fifth. But O’Malley showed incredible heart and skill tonight, going five rounds for the first time in an incredible performance tonight at UFC 299.
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