An excessive amount of, too quickly.
That’s the message from Marlon Vera after a disappointing efficiency in opposition to Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC Abu Dhabi on Saturday.
In his first combat again after falling to UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley in lopsided trend at UFC 299 again in March, the all the time robust “Chito” suffered a second straight loss after dropping a unanimous choice to Figueiredo. Whereas he had his moments within the combat, Vera began sluggish and simply by no means put collectively the form of offensive quantity wanted to beat the previous flyweight champion.
Following the combat, Vera launched a press release on Instagram admitting that he could have been a bit of too anxious to get again within the cage once more with out giving himself the right time to get better from his five-round struggle in opposition to O’Malley simply 5 months in the past.
“I fail at myself final evening,” Vera wrote. “I believed I used to be prepared. I felt good within the gymnasium however on the finish perhaps I come again too fast after a tough title combat. Life doesn’t finish right here I nonetheless dream about huge issues I simply want time to let go and reset.”
Through the combat, the UFC broadcast workforce — which included UFC Corridor of Famer Daniel Cormier and Paul Felder — famous that Vera remarked to them about getting out of the gates sooner than normal as a result of he solely had three rounds to work.
Prior to now, Vera has typically began considerably sluggishly within the opening spherical however proven a capability to get stronger because the combat strikes ahead. That’s labored out for him up to now, most notably with a fourth-round knockout of former UFC champion Dominick Cruz in addition to a shocking third-round end of UFC Corridor of Famer Frankie Edgar in 2021.
This time round, Vera simply by no means fairly kicked into second gear.
