The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to pay-per-view with an exciting bantamweight title fight sitting atop the UFC 299 card.
This marks the first attempted title defense for O'Malley (17-1, 1 NC), who knocked out Aljamain Sterling to claim his spot at the top of the 135-pound division. Prior to the championship win, "Sugar" scored wins over Petr Yan, Raulian Paiva and Kris Moutinho. O'Malley's lone professional defeat was to Vera, who finished off the MMA Lab product within a single round of their 2020 fight. "Sugar" officially weighed 135 pounds on the dot.
Since beating O'Malley, Vera (23-8-1) has won five of his last seven fights. His most recent setback was a split decision loss to Cory Sandhagen, which he followed up with by defeating Pedro Munhoz. "Chito" also has wins over Dominick Cruz, Rob Font and Frankie Edgar on his ledger. The title challenger stepped on the scale at 135 pounds.
UFC 299 main card will air live on ESPN+ pay-per-view at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT on Saturday. Prelims begin at 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT on ESPN+ and UFC Fight Pass before moving to ESPN and ESPN+ at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.
UFC 299 Weigh-in Results:
Sean O'Malley (135) vs. Marlon Vera (135)Dustin Poirier (156) vs. Benoit St. Denis (155)
Kevin Holland (170) vs. Michael Page (170)
Gilbert Burns (171) vs. Jack Della Maddalena (170)
Yadong Song (136) vs. Petr Yan (135)
Jailton Almeida (241) vs. Curtis Blaydes (257)
Maycee Barber (125) vs. Katlyn Cerminara (125)
Rafael dos Anjos (156) vs. Mateusz Gamrot (156)
Pedro Munhoz (135) vs. Kyler Phillips (135)
Ion Cutelaba (205) vs. Philipe Lins (206)
Michal Oleksiejczuk (185) vs. Michel Pereira (186)
Robelis Despaigne (261) vs. Josh Parisian (266)
Asu Almabaev (126) vs. C.J. Vergara (127)*
Maryna Moroz (126) vs. Joanne Wood (125)
* Vergara missed weight by one pound and has been fined 30% of his purse.