MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Chito Vera Confident Sean O'Malley Title Shot is Next | Morning Kombat Interview

Episode Date: August 24, 2023

Luke Thomas sits down with Marlon 'Chito' Vera following his win over Pedro Munhoz at UFC 292. How did the three round fight impact his gameplan? What does he attribute his durability to? How does Chito see a second O'Malley fight going? (00:00:40) - UFC 292 Performance (00:01:30) - Fighting Style (00:04:00) - Chito's Durability (00:07:50) - Sean O'Malley vs. Aljamain Sterling (00:11:10) - Work Ethic (00:13:50) - Sean O'Malley Fight (00:19:50) - Ecuador (00:24:00) - Rate That Tat Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and wherever else you listen to podcasts.     For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only at participating McDonald's in Canada. All right, joined now on Morning Combat CBS Sports by the gentleman who had a big win at UFC 292 over Pedro Munoz. You know him as Chito.

It is Marlon Vera. Hi, Chito. How are you? All good, my bro. I'm happy and, you know, excited about getting to display my skills and put in a good fight on Saturday night. And, you know, I'm healthy and, you know, ready to go. And you got a fresh shave,

which we were talking about off camera there just earlier. But let's talk about your performance at 292. So I watched it again this morning to prepare for today's interview. Grade it for me. How would you grade your performance? I mean, that was a solid performance. I feel that that was like a dominant performance

from start to bottom, top to bottom, and just, you know, use my jab, use my movement, use my defense in my favor, and just every time he throws something or tries to attempt engagement, I make him pay. And I mean, that was a beautiful jab. I was myself, I was like, wow, that was a clean jab. If you can do that, you don't need to rush anything.

You don't need to try too hard. So I'm excited about with the fight and the way it went. And I was just able to show a little more wrinkles on my game. You know, I don't need to go crazy for the finish. And this time I went a little quicker in the first round. So, I mean, I'm trying to please the public. So we went a little faster this time. Now, that is something that's been noted about your style,

which is that as the fight goes on, it heats up and it heats up and it heats up. But have you been consciously working on maybe starting a little bit quicker so that you don't have to rely more at the end of a fight? Yep, 100%. I think this is the first fight in a long, long time that I actually forced myself to like, we're winning the first round. We put in everything on the first one. And that's a lot of pressure because it's so easy for me to chill, make reads, see the speed, see everything. And then I'm like, okay, fuck you. I'm coming. But this time I went, you know what? My whole training camp,

coach did a great job on, you know, talking me to do that. And, you know, we work on a lot of different things, but we really focus on round one, just go. And we do it. How disruptive is it though, right? Because I'm going to guess that if you have a choice between a three round fight and a five round fight,

it sounds like you would still prefer to be in a five-round fight. So I guess I'm wondering, can you explain the training to me? What is the difficulty in trying to make that adjustment early? What do you have to overcome? I feel that it's just a mental thing. You just got to go crazy crazy go hard the first round like and in all my sparring sessions i was going off the gate just going just just looking for big shots setting up big things and just getting up because five rounds is i mean five rounds is the best

thing you can do you're the main event all the lights on you you're the poster coolest shit ever right i'm a main event guy i take any main event over being the second or third finding any paper but i don't give a fuck about that when you're the main event all the eyes are on you espn everything like you are the person and that's what grows my brand bigger that's what put all these eyes on me that's what take me to the next level so what do you want i take every five round that out there still though if you go back to a five round fight are you going to keep this same kind of score first mentality yep uh it's just you gotta work and get better. You got to work on adding tutors. Everybody knows I'm a calculated killer.

What about faster calculated killer? That's a motherfucker 2.0 right there, and I'm in for it. It certainly is. You know, it's one thing I've been kind of wondering about is, like, I was looking down on your resume, and it's like some of the hard hitters you've faced over time. Dude, you legitimately have some, have some historic levels of durability. To what do you attribute that to?

Why are you much more durable than many of your competitors? Consistency, man. Work hard. I get at this level, everybody works hard. Everybody tries. Everybody has a desire for being a world champion, but you can always push yourself a little bit more. You can always expand that window of pain

tolerance, just being able to keep going when everything is firing up. And it's just like, I mean, shave the seconds on my sprints, go a little faster on my sparring. When you hit in the back, we all get tired. Everybody gets tired. There's a point that everybody's like that. But when you're in that S&R and you're feeling that, and you just go to a mindset of like, let's push a little harder. Let's go 10 seconds longer.

Let's go a mile faster a mile longer let's take the seconds down on each mile i mean you can expand that capacity to another level and a lot of people might try to catch me they will try but they won't catch me because that's something like what Kobe Bryant used to say. It's like, while you're taking time off, while you're thinking about this and that or all this bullshit that comes with success, I'm just putting another rep. I'm just putting another rep.

By the time we face each other, I got years ahead of you. But I was just going to say, certain guys appear to be just extra, they're not as limited by injury as other ones. You seem to be one of those guys. Izzy at 185 seems to be one of those guys. Is it a genetic thing as well? I think it could be how we live our lives.

I mean, probably, I mean, everything I do is based on performance and health, brain health. I mean, going from the ice bath, the sauna, go to bed on time. I mean, I know the coolest people out there. I go out with them, but I'm not drinking. I'm not saying too late. Like, I give myself, like, little enjoyments. Like, I go out with my boy, Bronson.

We go to good restaurants. We eat. I mean, last night I went to see my boy Zach Bryan play live. Like, there's things that come with those things. But after that, people go to a party, go to drink. I used to say to, like, that first half, have fun, give it a hug. Okay, guys, I got to go. Oh, you just thought you could go crazy?

No. I'm fighting in a couple months. I'm already thinking ahead. And I give myself fun. I do fun shit, but everything got to be in a couple months. I'm already thinking ahead. And I give myself fun. I do fun shit, but everything gotta be in a controlled circle, like what you do off camp, it's probably gonna help you the most when you're in camp. And like right now, like I'm gonna wait probably one

or two more days and then I'm gonna start running, doing my lower base, going back to the ice, going back to the sauna and just keep eating healthy and that just keeps getting your body stronger and stronger and stronger so by the time you go to all the world and turn the board is ready to go because if you go and just do everything wrong leading up to the fight and then what well you can expect a bad result you cannot expect your body to take it all. So, you know, good food, good life, having a good circle around you.

Smile a lot. I mean, what else can you do? That's about it, I suppose. All right. Now, has the UFC at all indicated to you that you could be next for the now new UFC bantamweight champion Sean O'Malley? Have you had any kind of conversations about that? Zero. Like, after the fight, I used to text Dana and hunter and i was like hey guys you guys know where

i am i'm ready to go so yes if there's something to talk let's talk it out but i'm i'm all in for so i'm sure they will come with something and i me, it just seems like how not to do it right now. There's no way they're going to do it right now. I mean, business-wise is the best time to do it, money-wise, eye-wise. So that's why I'm not even pushing myself. I don't need to push it. It's already served. It's as ready to go as you can be.

How would you rate Sean O'Malley's performance against Sterling? It was great. That's picture perfect, right? I mean, you're fighting a guy that is a really clean striker, that have good sip in the punches, and you just run to the guy like, what is going to happen? But I'm at that level.

I can hang with anybody in the stand up i can be in front of you i can make reads starling is just a great fucking champion good wrestling but he just don't have that stand up to like be right there eye to eye and be like and just play in chess he just don't have that and i do do have that. I fought every single world-class striker. And neither, no one has put me in a bad position just because

I'm in there. I have a good base. And going back to coach, he's the one that brought me to the next level of the eyes, the coordination, the striking. Just growing my toughness and my work ethic and be like polish everything. I mean, I can hang with everybody. I'm very fortunate.

I wasn't really in front of him. You know, so now is a good time to do it, but I started to make a big mistake. He went, I mean, you cannot run to someone. Even if the guy's not a good striker, don't run like that because anything that touches you, a clean one or a bad one,

is going to catch you. And in fact, in the Pedro Munoz fight, you were like on purpose, but you were right there in front of him duking it out with him, right? So the idea is that Sterling can play the distance game, but he can't play the distance closing game, whereas you believe you can just be right there in the pocket as long as you need. I mean, and I can do it all. I can move.

I can go backwards. I can bring you where I want. I can definitely walk you down. That's easy. Walking people down and drown them, that's my best thing. But if I need to pimp and move around and take my time i can go for a walk too so i i'm a great striker and i know that like i've been in front of the best of the best in the gfc coach always make sure we're sporting like really high level pro boxers that i'm sure they're even

supposed to be hanging up with them in there and i do but it's just it's just consistency and then when you are just do it and doing it and doing it you just become good and I like that feeling of being good so I don't stop doing it I don't get loose I just keep on doing it keep on doing it and I I feel I just keep getting better and sharper and you know I want to talk about Sean for one more second but but first in terms of your style, I mean, people don't realize this. You're only 30 years old, which is crazy. Cause you've been around for quite some time. Your resume is now long and quite decorated. But the thing that sort of stands out to me is in terms of your style, did you have an idea in mind about what it wanted to look like? Or did you put the trust in Jason Perillo or various other coaches and say where should I go how did you get to this point in terms of your style who came up with the idea

I mean just like I said earlier I I do have that work ethic I'm the type of guy that I don't question too many things I'm not the guy that tell you like, why? I don't do this. Oh, that doesn't fit with myself. Like if you're a good coach, like Porillo is like a really decorated, high fucking level coach that have multiple champions and have many different projects and pretty much 95% of those projects become a world champion. I mean, if the guy told you like, hey, work on this that's working and especially like the best test is like when you bring like a really high level kick box and I really had ever pro boxer and you're able to hang in there and actually score points and make it competitive you go like I mean what else can you can you spec out of your skills but i just i just stick around in the gym long enough that

i learned how to learn i learned how to like pay attention i learned how to also cut the bullshit because in mma you got so many fucking wannabe coaches or fucking toxic people that tell you like hey let's do this program you put uh i don't know you squeeze a cactus and you get more punching power there's so many of those fucking scams in mma so many through my experience i learned how to take all those little puzzles like no you're not good no your advice suck no you're fucking definitely toxic. But that's true experience because a guy like me that I'm an open-minded, I wanna get better, I wanna absorb as much advice as I can,

you will run into the fucking shitty one. And then it takes balls and a personality to kind of like kick that person out. Because sometimes they're not a bad person or they mean well or they don't mean bad, but they will definitely hurt your career. And I've been there before, listening to somebody that, I'm like, holy shit, how I was listening to that person.

But that's experience too. That's how you get to this point. And, you know, thank God, so good so far. All right, so you fought Sean O'Malley before, which is part of the reason why a rematch is quite intriguing at this point. But let's go back to that fight. What did you learn about him in that fight? I mean, very explosive guy.

Really, really strong one thing. Like, he fakes a lot. He fakes kind of like move. It's kind of like an awkward. It's not like an easy fake that he would really throw a a fake and then because he's that athletic at that level he's really like bouncing he moved a lot of his head move a lot the head like he looked to the other side and punch you just gotta like find a way how to ignore those things you gotta find a way how to like don't buy on those things and honestly with a guy like that you can't open up too much you

can't go crazy because he's really good at throw right after you throw that's his best thing in my opinion strong kicks really big but i mean a guy like that you just gotta fucking drown him you you gotta be on his face and tell and let him know that you don't give a fuck and the most important thing my opinion is the mental game he does bring the lights he does bring this like different aura that's his that's his thing you know i feel like bring some of that in in the different ways i got my energy too but if you're the guy that you're reading comments or you're paying too much attention on the cameras, I got like that, I can definitely hurt you.

But luckily for me, I don't give two fucks about that. I don't really care if you're the most famous guy out there or you're a fucking piece of shit and no one cares about you. Doesn't matter to me. When I'm in there, it's my life or yours. I fucking love my life, so I'm going to fight my ass off. So I'm not too worried about the more extra cameras or the more interviews.

Just because in that fight week I'm fighting that type of guy, I get more recognition or more of this and that, that thing doesn't get to my head. That's like my boy Easy says, fuck the noise. I'm not even there. I'm like, those clouds, they're there. I'm looking forward to the sunshine. I don't need clouds on top of me. I need light to bright up my mind.

So, I mean, I think I'm in a pretty good position and chances that I'm a world champion by the end of December are pretty fucking big. Yeah, they could be pretty good. In terms of, like, how do I ask this? So, for example, you fought John Lineker, who has a huge punch, right? Does O'Malley have a big punch in that sense, or does he get success because of, like, the timing and the accuracy? What is the difference in the punching ability

between a guy like Lineker and a guy like O'Malley? I mean, O'Malley is very similar to what Conor does. He will take a step back and just throw one big hitmaker, and he's really accurate and he's really quick. So for a guy like O'Malley, you need to be sharp and very focused. With a guy like Lineker, you can block his shit and he doesn't give no fucks and he goes left, hook, right, left,

uppercut, fucking tomahawk. But whatever lands, he's going to fucking put your lives out. And he has a big fucking... I need him on the face. I mean, I beat his ass in the third round, but it wasn't enough. And he can just...

He's willing to take two. He's similar to Pedro. He hits way harder than Pedro. But he's similar to Salah. He will take three punches and go crazy at you. And I feel a guy like Lineker might be a little more dangerous because he fights are reckless and when i got like that you gotta like use your distance is your move a

little better i thought we just fought when i was too young and then by the time i realized i was actually able to win the fight i run out of time but it was a close fight for a for a young for a young cheetah back then no it was and close fight for a young Cheeto back then. No, and of course you performed quite ably. As I mentioned, dude, you're still 30. I mean, that's still pretty young, to be quite honest with you, all things considered. One more note about the fight that you had with O'Malley previously,

which was that one of the narratives coming out, and I'm not saying it's fair or it isn't. Only you and he and the world will figure it out in time. But one of the narratives that came out of that fight was that, oh, he might be physically brittle. He might not be physically able to handle some of the demands of fighting long term. Do you believe that O'Malley is, to some extent, more brittle than perhaps other bantamweights? I mean, that's hard to know. know i mean i can call him a pussy and i can talk shit back to him but honestly i don't know that's you know he knows that deep

down like i know i'm fucking hard as a rug like i'll be i'll be ready for a for a proper war and I'm willing to go fucking anywhere. But in him, I mean, he just, he just have that weird mentality, you know, that in order to grow, you gotta accept this and let it go. But maybe he's fucking around and trying to fool us. That's why I really don't even pay attention too much to what people say, because sometimes they're just fooling you and make you think something,

then they're smarter or sharper than what they are. Starling said, oh, he was better than I thought. You should never say that because in first place you should know that he's good enough to be there with you in order to don't lose your focus and don't lose that cool in there to win a fight. I mean, if you think it's going to be easy, probably it's a mistake. I think he thinks like that a lot too. Like he really thinks it's too good for everybody.

And then you find out people actually is going to be ready to fight you out there. All right. A few more questions for you. We'll let you go. First thing on this one is the future of like prospects and fighters from Ecuador. Now we have Michael Morales who's on his way as a a young guy he looks like a tank in his own division i wonder what you feel like in five years what the future of ecuadorian mma might look like i mean it's just i think it's gonna be booming i think more guys more kids are to be like that's what I want, that's what I want to do but we still need a lot of infrastructure in terms of like

which weight class pick, I see a lot of good, tough guys that have actually pretty decent kickboxing maybe a so-so jiu-jitsu wrestling but the reason why Michael is being so successful so quickly

is just because he's a real wrestler. He knows how to cut away. He knows how to wrestle. And that's pretty much half of the battle when you're married to the UFC. When I married to the UFC, I have no idea how to cut away. I was just a fighter. I was a street fighter with some Jiu-Jitsu and a big pair of balls. Thank God I figured it it on and now I

Got experience and I know how to fight. All my record was small but like for a guy like him that he actually wrestles cuts way and I mean it's been it's not easy for him, but he just had a Better start on me a better road for the old ones coming in the other side Sometimes when I see a beauty or a highlight of a kid that is actually good they're using the wrong weight because they're like super overweight fucking tough as fuck but if you came to the ufc like that you're gonna be a walk in the park for anybody because i was watching some 55ers in ecuador and i was like they're like 10

foot shorter than me and a little fat. They can fight like a motherfucker, good technique and everything, but people got to teach them like, hey, like you got to live a little bit more of like a professional, like a cleaner diet. Like don't be a normal guy that fights. You got to become an athlete, a fighter and all that. And that's just knowledge. I hope that goes to the country a little quicker than than not and then last thing on ecuador i i it's um i don't get a chance to speak to many ecuadorians so i just i want to ask you very quickly if i may i know there was a recent assassination of a political candidate and it created a lot of concern about the state of

things i wonder sort of watching that from afar what you make of the i don't know instability there these days bro it's so fucked up right now like dude you open twitter and he's shootings every couple hours more attempt of murder to reach people because they don't want to pay the the bad guys just for protection from their own self, it's becoming a fucking, it's dark. It's just like Pablo Escobar days back in the night. It's like, it's not almost that bad. It's that bad.

And I mean, I'm in the comfort of California, right? But guess what? My father, my mother, all my cousins, all the people I love, my his kids my sister her husband my grandfather my grandmother people like fucking my people my guts they're back home and i mean they can they're they're a target because of me right so it's it's fucked up it's really hard like just to know what's going on and no one is doing something. When things get that bad, you gotta fucking cut that shit from the roots.

You don't go in there and you wanna dialogue with them, no. You fucking cut the head of the snake and you say, fuck you all, you fucking bad people. But no one is doing that, so. Right now it's the worst time the world whoever was the president for the last couple years is a fucking moron and i mean fuck do something man it's really that bad i mean i lose opportunity to go back home visit my people show some love, make money, go to do things with brands. I can go right now. No one can go right now. I'm sorry to hear all that. It is certainly an unstable time. All right,

but let's end on a positive note if we can. So Chito, I don't have quite the tattooing you do. I got some, you know, I'm a little bit inked up, but you're fully blasted, my guy. Fully, yeah, look at that. Okay, so we have a game that we play called rate that tat we're gonna show you some tattoos and you just give us your honest opinion i'm like you i'm a bold will hold kind of guy you know what i mean like i like american traditional i like japanese tattooing but we're gonna show you some ufc fighters tattoos you just give me the chito vera opinion how's that sound all right here we All right, let me pull up my list here. We're going to get going.

First one up, we've got Alan Belcher. Let's throw this one up here. What do you think of this one, Chito? That was a really shitty tattoo. That's a zero over 10. All right, very good. Next is Darren Elkins, the damage on the chest there. Yeah, he's joining my man

Bellator right there. That, I mean, he's fighting his style. He's teaching his face and he went fucking with the with those medals. That, yeah, that's bad. That's not good. It's not my favorite either. Okay, a few more of these.

Austin Vanderford, he fights in Bellator. What do you think about the throat tat there, the eyeball? Yeah, that's really Cody Garvin right there. I mean, Cody pulled it out first, so you don't want to be second in those types. It's well done. It's a better-looking traditional one. Yeah, I agree. I think it's a well-done tattoo.

I just wouldn't want it, if that makes sense. Yeah, too much color maybe it says the guy with a lot of color but yeah not my how about this one Sean Brady's back now that's a good one yeah he have clean tattoos he have good color the

tiger on the back of the head not my favorite but the back tattoo is pretty good and he make sure he put a lot of good like strong colors. And he's not going too, like, for a look with the color. Like, or whoever is doing it is being very smart and, like, going dark on the reds. Yeah, that's clean. That's clean.

Yeah, it's a clean tat. I agree. All right, Curtis Blades, he got razor blades on his arm. What do you think? Yeah, no bueno. Bad. No te gusta? That's awful, bro.

All right. How about Brock Lesnar's sword tattoo? I mean, if somebody can put – that's like a Mike Tyson face, too. It's everything wrong about it, but for some reason, just goes perfect on those two guys. So I would say well done on that one. All right, and last but not least, how about Gray Maynard? I'm not sure if I've seen this one.

The tramp stamp there. I'm a big MMA nerd. I remember all of these. I mean, even if you were to show me just the tattoo, not the face of the person, I probably would go 10 for 10. Alright, that's all we have. Lastly, I'll ask you this.

The last question for me. Do you have a favorite tattoo of your own? Like, anything on you? Like, the one that you got blasted on the head? I mean, the panther is really sick. I mean, I recently got dead pulled in the back of my leg, and I love that one. Let me see. Let me see.

Shit! Are you seeing Bob Marling in there? Yes, I see Bob smoking. I sure do. That's awesome. I love those two. But, I mean, my chest is a dope piece. Like, Franco Vescovi, kill it.

I mean, that's why I didn't want to tattoo my stomach, because it looks so well done. The way it looks, I might just leave this empty. And, of course, whatoon did is fucking wild. I mean, having a tattoo from Cartoon is kind of like a flex for me. I mean, that's cool. It's a super flex. He's an in-demand artist.

Well, Chito, I got to say, you've been gracious with your time. Congratulations on your win. I don't know what's going to happen in December, but if you have a fight with Sean O'Malley or otherwise, I look forward to it. Thank you so much. Thank you, brother. I appreciate it.