Brandon
Vera, even at the age of 45, still believes he has work left to
do.
The former
One
Championship titleholder will return to the mixed martial arts
stage for the first time in more than 19 months when he tackles
Amir
Aliakbari in a
ONE 164 heavyweight showcase on Saturday at the Mall of Asia
Arena in Pasay, Philippines. Vera enters the cage on a two-fight
losing streak. In fact, he has not tasted victory since he punched
out
Mauro
Cerilli in 64 seconds at ONE “Conquest of Champions” in
November 2018.
As Vera makes final preparations for his forthcoming clash with
Aliakbari, a look at five of the many moments that have come to
define him:
1. Power Player
Vera cemented himself as a true person of interest in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight division when he
blew away
Frank Mir with
punches in the first round of their featured UFC 65 attraction on
Nov. 18, 2006 at ARCO Arena in Sacramento, California. The curtain
was drawn a mere 69 seconds into Round 1. Vera dazed the longtime
Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt with a left hook, followed it with a
right cross and upped the intensity of the assault with a crushing
knee strike from the clinch. An unsteady Mir zeroed in on the legs,
only to be greeted by a textbook sprawl from the
Lloyd Irvin
protégé, his situation having gone from alarming to downright dire
in a matter of seconds. Vera settled in side control, cut loose
with elbows and eventually progressed to a kneeling position in
half guard, at which he dropped right hands on the turtled Mir
until referee Steve Mazzagatti had seen enough.
2. A ‘Natural’ Low
Randy
Couture leaned on every bit of his considerable guile and grit,
as he piled up nearly nine minutes of control time and outstruck
Vera to a contentious unanimous decision in the UFC 105 light
heavyweight main event on Nov. 14, 2009 at the Manchester Evening
News Arena in Manchester, England. All three cageside judges struck
29-28 scorecards for “The Natural,” though many observers believed
Vera deserved a better fate. While Couture completed only one of
his 10 attempted takedowns, he managed to engage the Norfolk,
Virginia, native at close range for extended stretches, perhaps
creating the illusion that he was the man in charge. Vera
nevertheless authored the most significant moment of the fight in
the second round, where he dropped the former two-division champion
with a knee strike to the body and gave chase with
ground-and-pound. Couture withstood the assault, recovered between
rounds and resumed his typical song and dance. Vera surprised him
with a takedown in Round 3 but failed to do enough elsewhere to
sway the judiciary.
3. Crack in the Facade
The impact was audible and sickening, as
Jon Jones
rebounded from his disqualification loss to
Matt Hamill
and put away Vera with elbows and punches in the first round of
their UFC Live 1 headliner on March 21, 2010 at the 1stBank Center
in Broomfield, Colorado. “Bones” brought it to a close 3:19 into
Round 1. After Jones executed the second of his two takedowns, he
absorbed an illegal upkick that resulted in a brief pause to the
action. The foul cost Vera a point but did not factor into the
outcome. Referee
Herb Dean
restarted the match with Jones in top position. The
Jackson-Wink MMA star then uncorked a volley of elbows, one of
which connected with more force than the others. Vera turned away
from contact in visible distress—it was later determined that he
had suffered a dislocated cheekbone—and ate a few more punches
before Dean called for the stoppage.
4. Rising to the Occasion
Vera seized possession of the vacant One Championship heavyweight
crown when he knocked out
Paul Cheng in
the first round of their ONE “Spirit of Champions” main event on
Dec. 11, 2015 at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay, Philippines. “The
Truth” slammed the door 26 seconds into Round 1, nailing down what
remains the fastest finish of his 20-year career. The two
combatants traded leg kicks from the start and engaged one another
in a brief close-range exchange before moving out into open space.
Vera dropped the “Typhoon” to a knee with a left hook, decked him
with a subsequent head kick and mopped up what was left of his
now-supine adversary with hammerfists. He went on to defend the
title on two occasions and enjoyed a historic stay atop the
heavyweight division.
5. Violent Transition of Power
Arjan
Singh Bhullar laid claim to the One Championship heavyweight
title when he took out Vera with punches in the second round of
their ONE “Dangal” headliner on April 28, 2021 at Singapore Indoor
Stadium in Kallang, Singapore. Bhullar finished it 4:27 into Round
2. So ended Vera’s 1,982-day reign as champion. Bhullar applied
consistent pressure throughout the match, often backing it up with
clubbing right hands. Vera tried to keep him at bay with stance
switches, steady jabs and low kicks, but his cardio appeared to
betray him midway through the second round. Bhullar swooped in for
two takedowns, bottled up the UFC veteran in a kneeling position
and fired away with punches and hammerfists from both hands until
referee
Justin
Brown had seen enough. It was Vera’s first loss as a
heavyweight in nearly eight years.