At UFC on ESPN 25 this Saturday, Marlon Vera (16-7-1 MMA, 7-3-1 UFC) faces Davey Grant, an opponent he’s familiar with. The two fighters first fought at UFC Fight Night 84 in February 2016 with Grant winning by unanimous decision.
Over five years later, Vera hopes to exact his revenge. Losing isn’t easy, but Vera recognizes the handful of career losses he experienced made him stronger and better in the long run.
“The couple months after the fight, I would wake up in the middle of the night upset,” Marlon Vera told MMA Junkie at a pre-fight news conference Wednesday. “The only thing to calm that down was to go for runs at 4 a.m., like, for real. But at the end of the day, you just have to go back to the gym and work with the coaches on what was wrong, what could be better, and just keep going forward. If you attach yourself to the past, you’re still in the past.”
“…Of course, he’s evolved. There’s a reason he’s winning, but he hasn’t fought me since (our first fight). So he will fight me now and I’m going to kick his ass.”
UFC on ESPN 25 takes place Saturday at the UFC Apex. The entire card airs on ESPN2 and streams on ESPN+.
