Judge Sal D’Amato scored in favor of Marlon Vera at the conclusion of “Chito’s” fight against Aiemann Zahabi at UFC Vancouver last weekend in Canada. Unfortunately for Vera, judges Jake Maxim and Mike Bell gave two of the three rounds to Zahabi, who left Rogers Arena with the split decision victory.
It was a close fight … but was it a robbery?
“I watched the fight last night by myself to try and judge it, because I’m my biggest critic,” Vera told Uncrowned. “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. Then when [the judges] say his name, I say, ‘F**k everybody’ and just 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.”
As we’ve seen from previous UFC events, some judges could use a good slapping.
“I probably left before [Zahabi] even got to the back,” Vera continued. “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.”
Hopefully he got some ice cream and shin wraps.
It’s been a rough couple of years for the 32 year-old Vera (23-11-1), who dropped three in a row and four of his last five. “Chito” has always been one of the busiest fighters at 135 pounds so job security is hardly an issue, but his days of title contention are likely over for the foreseeable future, which is worth being “pissed” about.
