Brandon Vera

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1 Profile
2 Early MMA Career
3 UFC Heavyweight Career
4 UFC Light Heavyweight Career
5 Mixed Martial Arts Record
6 Gallery
7 External links

Profile

Brandon "The Truth" Vera (born October 10, 1977) is an American professional mixed martial artist.

He stands 6 ft 3in (191cm) and currently fights as a light heavyweight (205 lbs.).

He fights out of the Alliance MMA training camp and fights as a light heavyweight for the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Early MMA Career

Brandon Vera made his professional mixed martial arts debut on July 6, 2002 against Adam Rivera as a part of the Excalibur Fighting 11 card. Vera defeated Rivera via TKO in the first round.

Vera went undefeated in his next three fights on smaller promotions. In the second of those three fights he scored a notable victory over future UFC competitor, Mike Whitehead via second round TKO at WEC 13.

UFC Heavyweight Career

Vera made his UFC debut at UFC Fight Night 2 against Fabiano Scherner in October of 2003. He scored a TKO victory over Scherner with devastating knee strikes in the second round. After the bout, Vera got under a number of fighter's skins when he stated that he was going to win the heavyweight title and then drop down and defeat Chuck Liddell for the light heavyweight title.

He returned four months later at UFC 57 where he knocked out Justin Eilers 1.25 into the first round with a high kick. Three months later, at UFC 60, Vera submitted the tough Assuerio Silva with a guillotine choke at 2.40 of round 1.

With his undefeated MMA and UFC record, Vera was given a shot at former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir at UFC 65. Vera scored the biggest victory of his career with a devastating TKO victory over Mir just 1.09 into the first round.

With his victory over Mir, the UFC awarded Vera a shot at the heavyweight title which at that time was held by Tim Sylvia. However, a dispute arose between the UFC and Vera's management team during Vera's contract renegotiation. Vera sat out of competition for almost a year, trying to clear up the dispute which culminated in Vera firing his manager, Mark Dion and moving training camps.

Vera returned to competition at UFC 77 in October of 2007, against the man he was meant to face, Tim Sylvia. The bout was a non-championship three round affair due to Sylvia having lost the title to Vera's replacement, Randy Couture at UFC 68.

In a dull affair, Vera lost a unanimous decision to Sylvia. Vera sustained a broken hand in the first round that limited his striking arsenal but accepted the loss and vowed to fight on in the heavyweight division.

Vera was given an immediate chance to get back into title contention in his return bout at UFC 85, when he faced off against Fabricio Werdum. In a controversial fight, Vera was stopped by Werdum at 4.40 of round 1. A mounted Vera was attempting to weather out the round until a miscommunication between Vera and referee, Dan Miragliotta caused the bout to be halted, ruling Werdum the victor. Vera was furious after the fight and was very critical of the referee and Werdum for not taking an immediate rematch.

UFC Light Heavyweight Career

At the request of UFC management, Brandon Vera moved down a weight class to the light heavyweight division.

He accepted a bout on short notice against Reese Andy for the quickly put together UFC Fight Night 14 card. A card that was put together on roughly a month's notice by the UFC in order to counter progam Affliction's inaugural show, Affliction: Banned. Vera reportedly turned down a fight with Lyoto Machida for the event, stating he did not have enough time to prepare for his style. Vera also claimed that he accepted bouts with both Dan Henderson and Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou but the fight was turned down by each fighter.

The Andy bout was a fairly lacklustre affair, with Vera looking to be a little rusty cutting weight for the first time. Vera defeated Andy via unanimous decision to break his two fight losing streak.

In his second fight as a light heavyweight, Vera suffered a major setback when he suffered a split decision loss to Keith Jardine at UFC 89.