Chael Sonnen outlines what the winner of Dominick Cruz vs. Marlon Vera can do to land a UFC title shot next
Chael Sonnen has outlined what the winner of the upcoming Dominick Cruz vs. Marlon Vera fight could do to secure a UFC bantamweight title shot next. 'The Dominator' and 'Chito' are set to collide at UFC Fight Night on August 14.
Meanwhile, UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling is set to defend his title against former bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw at UFC 280 on October 22. On the same card, bantamweight superstar ‘Sugar’ Sean O’Malley will face former bantamweight champion Petr Yan.
IT'S OFFICIAL 🤯
@PetrYanUFC & @SugaSeanMMA will throw down at #UFC280 in Abu Dhabi.
How's this fight playing out? 🤔 #UFC #MMA https://t.co/LSkdvBUwIf
In an edition of Beyond The Fight, Sonnen emphasized that the victor of Dominick Cruz vs. Marlon Vera should lobby for the UFC to book him as the backup fighter for the Sterling-Dillashaw title matchup or for the O’Malley-Yan fight. He opined that 'The Dominator' or ‘Chito’ could thereby insert themselves into a UFC title matchup or at least another high-profile fight next. Sonnen stated:
“Looking at the calendar and being aware of where these pieces are, I believe whoever wins between ‘Dom’ and ‘Chito,’ I believe is going to call for a title shot. It’s going to go on deaf ears. Going to be the right thing to do; we’re going to get a little bit of bounce. We’re going to take a look. We’re going to see where ‘Sugar’ Sean’s at. We’re going to take a deep breath, and it’s going to go nowhere.”
“I believe they should position themselves immediately, immediately! Right there on ESPN, they should position themselves to become the backup fighter for ‘Aljo’ versus T.J., which, by the way, is the same night as Sean versus Yan.” [sic]
Watch Sonnen discuss the topic at 7:20 in the video below:
‘Sugar’ Sean O’Malley on the UFC bantamweight fight between Dominick Cruz and Marlon Vera
Sean O’Malley’s lone MMA loss came against Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera via first-round TKO in August 2020 after ‘Sugar’ suffered an ankle injury in the octagon. Needless to say, O’Malley is well-aware of how dangerous ‘Chito’ is.
‘Sugar’ still picked former bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz to beat Marlon Vera in their upcoming fight that’ll headline "UFC on ESPN: Vera vs. Cruz" on August 13. During the UFC 276 media day a few weeks back, O’Malley spoke to the media onsite, including Sportskeeda MMA, and said:
“It’s hard to count ‘Chito’ out. I don’t know. I’m excited for that fight. I’m excited to see how that plays out. I predicted Dominick would win, and people think it’s biased. But I also thought ‘Chito’ was going to beat Rob [Font], I thought ‘Chito’ was going to beat Frankie [Edgar], and he kind of did. So, we’ll see.”
Watch O’Malley’s assessment at 4:42 in the video below: