“Don’t let it bother you; you’ve got to deal with what’s in front of you.”
If Brandon Vera’s UFC career up to and including the night of November 18, 2006 was a Hollywood script, it would have been tossed into the scrap pile because it was too perfect.
Talented, charismatic, and explosive, Vera dispatched each of his four UFC foes with extreme prejudice, capping it off with a 69 second thrashing of former heavyweight champion Frank Mir at UFC 65. The next fight? A battle for the UFC heavyweight championship against Tim Sylvia at UFC 68 in March of 2007.
But it never happened.
Negotiations between the UFC and Vera’s manager Mark Dion stalled, and the organization moved to a backup plan when Randy Couture ended a year long retirement to return to the Octagon and beat Sylvia for the title. Vera, in limbo, was simply a spectator.
“I try not to live in the woulda, coulda, shoulda stages,” said Vera, who takes on Sylvia this Saturday at UFC 77 in a non-title bout. “Of course, it’s in the back of my mind - ‘damn, I’m fighting Tim now just to fight him and I could have fought for the title’ - but I always live by the saying ‘it is what it is,’ and just deal with what’s going on right now.”
Eventually, as more information reached Vera’s ears, he realized that something pretty significant was lost in the translation from Dion – the amount of the UFC’s offer for the Sylvia fight and beyond.
“I found out my manager was lying to me about the UFC’s offer,” said Vera, who broke off ties with Dion and quickly jumped to mend fences with the UFC. It wouldn’t be that easy though, as Vera was now locked into a feud with his former manager that would only be solved by an arbitration hearing earlier this summer with the California State Athletic Commission.
Yet between November of 2006 and his August 2007 re-signing with the UFC, the 30-year old Vera was in limbo, watching his lightning-fast rise ground to a halt as the heavyweight world continued to turn without him.
“I just kept training and training, and that just kept my mind off of it,” said Vera, but every time he went on the internet, met a fan who recognized him, or turned on the television set, there were reminders of what he was missing. And in his darkest hours, he wondered if he would ever fight again.
“For sure that happened,” he said. “Am I gonna be able to do this or that, of course I thought of that. But then when I found out I had an arbitration date with my ex-manager with the California State Athletic Commission and the UFC giving me the contract, there was a light at the end of the tunnel.”
And it wasn’t a train. Plus, the support of his wife, family, coaches, and especially his father, kept him focused and positive.
“They’re all like ‘don’t let it bother you; you’ve got to deal with what’s in front of you,’” recalled Vera. “They told me you can’t stare off and worry about what happened in the past. If you do that you’ll never be able to move forward.”
In August, he moved forward, and signed to fight the man he should have fought for the heavyweight title in March.
“I just see a guy that I need to beat.”
Ask Brandon Vera for his thoughts on former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia and he hesitates. Then the answer comes and you can’t help but chuckle along with him when he says “Gigantor.”
It’s not a surprising answer from the Sci-Fi loving, video game playing, self-proclaimed “geek”. But in fighting terms, Sylvia may live up to at least three-quarters of the mantra of the Japanese manga and cartoon hero who is “bigger than big, taller than tall, stronger than strong, quicker than quick.” And though the 6-8, 260 pounder is far from quick, he definitely fits the bill on big, tall, and strong, making him a tough matchup for anyone.
“The biggest difficulty he presents is his reach,” said Vera. “He’s 6-8 and I’ve been training with a lot of guys who are 6-8, 300 pounds. I have one guy in particular, Big Phil Brown, he’s a pro boxer, and he’s been helping my range a lot. And that’s the biggest part because when I first started training with these tall dudes here, I was hurting myself just because my distance and my timing was off. The length and reach does make a difference, and I didn’t think it would make one. But the first week, I hurt my toes, my knees, my elbows, and my hands, and it was because I was punching and kicking either too early or too late. That’s the biggest challenge I hope Tim presents, and hopefully it’s been taken care of.”
But who does Vera see when he looks at Sylvia? Does he look at the dominant banger who scored knockouts over Andrei Arlovski, Tra Telligman, and Ricco Rodriguez, or the more tactical Sylvia who beat Arlovski in their rubber match, decisioned Jeff Monson, and was outhustled by Couture?
“I just see a guy that I need to beat,” said Vera. “I don’t see either one of those people. I see someone that’s in my way that I’ve got to beat.”
It’s that simple.
“I’m excited and nervous at the same time.”
If you listen to select sound clips and blurbs from his interviews, you could say that Brandon Vera is cocky. But look a little deeper, and the unbeaten California resident is also blessed with an honesty that can take people back a bit. Just look back at his comments before his previous UFC fights, where he admitted being uncomfortable on his feet despite knocking out his previous opponents in the Octagon, or his revelation that he wasn’t planning on any night life before or after his fight with Assuerio Silva because he was expecting to be pushed beyond his limits against the Brazilian. So ask him about the renewed state of the heavyweight division since he left, and the answer is what you expect it to be.
“The division’s stacked and I’m glad to be part of it,” he says, “but I’m excited and nervous at the same time.”
Not what you expect from one of the baddest men on the planet.
“Some people must think I’m this kind of Superman who never gets nervous, but I get nervous – bad,” he said. “The other night I didn’t sleep until 4:30 in the morning and I had to train at 10, so for sure I get nervous.”
It’s led him to training sessions at odd times of the day (and night), just to burn off that nervous energy and keep him on his toes in a sport in which anything and everything can happen.
“That’s why I get up and train in the morning, because I am nervous,” said Vera. “I’m nervous about that ‘what if’ factor. It doesn’t matter how talented you are or how gifted you are, or how hard you work; this is MMA, and anything can happen. It’s been proven time and time again this year; people who are supposed to win get smashed, people who are winning, get knocked out, so you can never prepare enough for a fight in the UFC.”
“Don’t believe the hype; believe what you see.”
You could probably bet your house on the fact that Brandon Vera wouldn’t ever want to go through anything like he did in the last 11 months, but strangely enough, absence has made the fans’ heart grow fonder for ‘The Truth’, who has taken on an almost mythical presence in the eyes of those who believe he can jump right in and challenge for the heavyweight crown. As for those new fans who haven’t seen him fight, they’re chomping at the bit to finally see him in action.
Funny thing, this fame game.
“Like I said in the (pre-fight) interview, ‘don’t believe the hype; believe what you see,’ and it’s true,” said Vera. “I’m going out there to put on a good show and most people who have seen me before know that I don’t like the fight going into the judges’ hands. I like to get it over with. I don’t ever want to put whether or not I lost into somebody else’s hands. I want to make it clear. I want the fighter to know that I beat him, and I want the fans to know that I beat him. And I think that’s what they miss and that’s what they want to see again.”
Eight fights, eight wins, with the last six victories coming by KO, TKO, or submission. Is Brandon Vera the next great heavyweight? Saturday night will start to answer that question. As for any silver lining in the clouds of the last 11 months, Vera doesn’t hesitate to answer that question.
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