Marlon Vera is still on the hunt for his first win in more than two years.
The longtime UFC bantamweight contender came up short in a close split decision loss to Canada’s Aiemann Zahabi at UFC Vancouver, marking Vera’s third straight defeat and extending his winless skid since his failed title shot against then-champion Sean O’Malley in March 2024. Saturday’s bout against Zahabi was also Vera’s first in-cage appearance since August 2024 — the longest layoff of his career.
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Speaking Monday on “The Ariel Helwani Show,” “Chito” reflected on the loss and his mindset heading into it. Vera, 32, said his time away was spent sharpening his grappling and working on starting fights faster — changes he felt were reflected in his UFC Vancouver performance, even if the result didn’t go his way.
“I did know momentum wasn’t on my side,” Vera told Uncrowned. “Of course I’m coming off two losses, but I was in a title fight [against O’Malley] and I’m losing to a former champion [Deiveson Figueiredo] in a fight that was kind of like, no one did too much, so it’s OK. It’s whatever. It’s in the past, turn the page. Get better.
“This fight, I came with energy. I came hard, and I honestly — I watched the fight last night by myself to try and judge it, because I’m my biggest critic. I’m going to be honest — I still think I won the fight. I’m not saying it was a f***ing 10-8 round each round, but I believe I won the fight.”
Vera is no stranger to close scorecards and has dealt with judging controversies before, most notably in his 2020 loss to Song Yadong.
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Against Zahabi, the Ecuadorian was confident he’d done enough to secure the first two rounds, making the decision all the more frustrating.
“When fight ends, I was like, ‘I won, I took the decision,'” Vera recalled. “When they say split decision, I went, ‘Oh, no.’ I literally say word for word, ‘Please, God. Give me the opportunity to advance.’ That’s all I say in my mind when I close my eyes. Then when they say his name, I say, ‘F*** everybody,’ and just f***ing start flipping [the bird], I was f***ing pissed. Thank God Elliott, the UFC security guy, it’s someone that I love and respect and he’s a very cool guy, thank God he was there in that moment, because if I would have encountered a judge, I would have slapped the motherf***er.
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“I probably left before [Zahabi] even got to the back. I was pissed. … I literally went to medicals, where they cut the wraps and they ask if you’re fine, I was like, ‘I’m all good.’ I said, ‘Just get me f***ing an x-ray for my f***ing finger.’ I was f***ing out. That took like, 90 seconds, and I literally walked from that to the car, barefoot, in my shorts, no t-shirt, no hoodie, nothing. Just walked out, go to the hotel and just walked straight to my room.”
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The loss dropped Vera to 1-4 in his last five (23-11-1 overall), continuing a sharp downturn since his title loss to O’Malley. Once one of the division’s most active and dangerous finishers, Vera now finds himself searching for the rhythm that carried him to the brink of a UFC bantamweight championship.
Prior to this current slide, Vera’s lone career losing streak from 2017-18 propelled him to arguably the best run of his career — a five-fight run of stoppages that quite literally changed his life.
Vera’s latest opponent, Zahabi, has made a similar turnaround since losing two in a row from 2017-19. The Canadian’s win at UFC Vancouver marked his seventh straight and helped Zahabi crack the promotion’s top-10 bantamweight rankings.
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Vera admitted Monday that he ultimately found Zahabi to be better than he thought, but regardless of his disappointment at the outcome, he’s still finding ways to carry positive momentum forward.
“It’s not worth talking about it. It’s in the past,” Vera said of the loss. “The only important thing right now is, perhaps I don’t have the momentum on the outside, with the bigger financials, more sponsors, more looks at me, because that’s what a win will bring — but at least mentally and spiritually, the momentum felt like a win.
“It’s positive going forward. That’s all that matters in real life. I’m 32, I’m not in a rush. I’m not 20, but with the experience I have, the health I have and the level that I’m fighting, you’ve gotta see things with a positive mindset and with a smile on your face. The finish line is still far. You might as well keep on going, because you might find something great on the road.”
