Marlon Vera believes he will be too much for Dominick Cruz.
Vera and Cruz are set to meet in the main event of a Fight Night card in San Diego on August 13 in a crucial fight for the division. The winner could get a title shot or be one win away and for Vera, he has all the confidence that he will dominate Cruz from bell to bell.
Marlon Vera Predicts His Fight vs Dominick Cruz
“I just see it as total destruction,” Vera told MMA Junkie. “How? When? I don’t know what round. Who cares. But he’s going to be down and I’m going to move forward.”
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The stakes are also high for Vera as he knows he is getting close to a bantamweight title shot and beating a legend in Cruz will help him reach his goal.
Will Marlon Vera Get a Title Shot if He Beats Dominick Cruz?
However, not only does Vera think he needs to beat Cruz, but he believes he needs to finish him and have a statement performance to secure that title shot. He knows there are other pivotal bantamweight fights that factor in, so it may come down to whoever has the best performance gets the next shot.
“Honestly, since they already booked all the top five and all are great fighters, I really feel whoever gets the best win is going to jump all of them,” Vera said. “Because all of them are high stakes. Dominick was a dominant champion, (Jose) Aldo is fighting Merab (Dvalishvili), Song Yadong is fighting (Cory) Sandhagen. So I just feel whoever puts on a better performance, and depending on who fought who in the past, is going to get it. I don’t give two f*cks about what happens in any of those fights. I’m just worried about taking the head off Dominick, kick his ass, finish him and then see what’s going on.”
Vera is coming off a decision win over Rob Font in his first UFC main event while before that he KO’d Frankie Edgar and beat Davey Grant by decision. Opposite him, Cruz is coming off the win over Pedro Munhoz and Casey Kenney after losing to Henry Cejudo for the belt.