Preview: UFC Vancouver ‘de Ridder vs. Allen’

Men’s Bantamweights

Marlon Vera (23-10-1; 15-9 UFC) vs. Aiemann Zahabi (13-2; 7-2 UFC)

Odds: Zahabi (-130); Vera (+110)

“Chito” Vera will seek to avoid the first three-fight skid of his career and slow Zahabi’s shocking resurgence in this bantamweight feature fight.

Vera is in some ways an overachiever. An aggressive, blood-and-guts striker with a sneakily effective grappling game, he has always been entertaining but seemed to be outclassed and outgunned by top-tier bantamweights, and seemed destined to go down as a fan favorite who spent a lot of time in the Top 15 but never quite graduated to full-on title contention.

Thanks in part to a nice run of five wins in six fights, and in greater part to a weird injury-aided victory over Sean O'Malley, Vera did in fact fight for a belt. The rematch with O’Malley didn’t go well, and after losing his next fight to Deiveson Figueiredo, he has now dropped three of four.

Vera is capable of technically sound kickboxing, but has a brawler’s heart and mind. It makes for fun viewing, but means that he takes a ton of damage even when he wins, and calmer, more disciplined strikers like O’Malley, Sandhagen and Jose Aldo have given him fits. His wrestling is effective but underused, which is a shame because his ground strikes are frightening and his submission game is very underrated: Vera was actually more of a submission specialist early in his career in South America.

Zahabi is of course the younger brother of Tristar Gym head man Firas Zahabi, and he is in some ways the platonic ideal of that camp: a well-conditioned, well-rounded martial artist with a composed approach. He is on a six-fight win streak in one of the UFC’s toughest divisions, which is surprising not just for the success but the work rate; Zahabi used to be a “one fight every two years” curiosity, and it seemed more likely he would be out of the sport entirely by now than a rising contender just shy of his 38th birthday.

Zahabi may be five years older than Vera, but the disparity in mileage is stark. My preview co-host Keith compared the wear and tear on their bodies to an NFL running back versus an NFL quarterback, and that may not even go far enough; Zahabi’s level of damage may be closer to a kicker when compared to Vera.

Even if neither man is particularly in physical decline, however, the style matchup makes me lean towards Zahabi. He is exactly the kind of patient counter striker who can take advantage of Vera’s aggression and defensive lapses on the feet, and even if Vera decides to dust off his double-leg for this one, Zahabi is a solid wrestler and dangerous grappler. Add in what is likely to be a vocal crowd in favor of the Canadian, and the possibility of some competitive, difficult to score rounds, and the pick is for Zahabi to win a decision in a fun scrap.



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de Ridder vs. Allen
Holland vs. Malott
Vera vs. Zahabi
Fiorot vs. Jasudavicius
Gibson vs. Aori
Nelson vs. Frevola
The Prelims