Quote of the Day: Dana White on Brandon Vera

by Luke Thomas on Oct 20, 2008 11:30 AM EDT in News Comment 11 comments

"I’m not seeing what I expected from Brandon Vera. It’s like he’s lost something.
"He doesn’t have that killer instinct since he took that year off. He doesn’t go after people. He used to be so cocky. He wanted to fight everybody.

"We tried to get him on one of the seasons of The Ultimate Fighter and he turned that down and said he wanted to fight Chuck Liddell and that he would knock him out.

"I hear that seven days a week so I told him to go on TUF and we’d find out how good he was.

"He was good, he used to walk through heavyweights earlier in his career.

"But he took a year off and we had all the issues with his contract and he hasn’t been the same since.

"I don’t know what’s wrong with him."

-- Dana White talking Brandon Vera after Vera's loss to Keith Jardine at UFC 89.

HT: Steve Cofield

Pic via photos.mmaweekly.com

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Uh Oh

That doesn’t sound good for Vera. I am a big fan of Brandon Vera but he needed to do something spectacular against Jardine and he did not. The question is; What does he do now? Looks like Dana isn’t to interested in his future. I don’t even think he could be considered a gate keeper now.

"Stop smiling you are about to be punched in the face !"

by Warhand on Oct 20, 2008 11:48 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Not even a gatekeeper? I think you are going a little too far with that analysis. The guy lost to Keith Jardine (top 10 LHW in the world) not Elvis Sinosic.

by Buddha Brown on Oct 20, 2008 11:55 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I think much of it has to also do with the way he has been fighting. Boring and tentative. As Dana said, he lost the killer instinct. He may still have a hard fist but he lacks the “gonna win no matter what”.

by mythbuster on Oct 20, 2008 12:03 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

The Truth is lost..

I’d have to agree with Dana here, the past four fights, he’s been completely lost out there. He hasn’t looked dominated, he hasn’t been explosive and he hasn’t pushed his wrestling on anyone. I don’t know too much about him except I thought he was fucking awesome before all this contract shit, now he’s getting boring as hell. I think he needs to start smashing some cans and getting some easy wins under his belt.

Guess it wasn’t so bad of Dana to not sign him to his insane contract his old manager was trying to push.

"Men like me are like comets, destined to be consumed by lighting up their century"

- Napolean

by Kris McKillop on Oct 20, 2008 11:58 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Its all about the $$$

Before the contract dispute he was on the average, up and coming star salary which I’m sure someone can dig out the figures to go with it.

Now? Now he turns up and he already has $100,000 just to walk out to the cage. I personally would have thought that an extra $100k would be enough motivation for a guy like Vera to get in there and fight his ass off… Maybe not.
If you’ll remember anytime he won at HW, he’d nearly always say ‘Gimme check so I can go home’…

Also, does his Muay Thai skills work against the quicker, more athletic guys than the slower, bigger heavyweights? Maybe a new camp is what he needs or to see the same sports psychologist that GSP went to…

Or basically a good root up the backside. Something…

by constantin3 on Oct 20, 2008 12:19 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Worst case scenario he finds himself earning half a million in Affliction to fight Mike Whitehead again or something equally silly.

That’s not actually the worst case scenario, of course. But it is a likely scenario, which really says a lot about Affliction.

by Brett Jones on Oct 20, 2008 12:57 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs

They are fucking retarded, aren’t they? Rec’d.

by subo on Oct 20, 2008 6:02 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

It's pretty common

This happens all the time in sports. A dude will be full of dazzling promise, then they get the big contract extension and the next thing you know they’re lost in a sea of yawn. I remember when it happened to Kipprusov of the Calgary Flames. He got this huge extension and suddenly lost his edge-which I was totally happy about because I hate the Flames etc. Apparently he needs a wake-up call, and maybe a sports psychologist for real. I do sometimes lament that the Werdum fight got stopped when it did. Would have liked to see that go further.

by Dooda on Oct 20, 2008 2:40 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I hate to say it but I think Vera may have been more hype than actual ability. His first 4 fights in the UFC were exciting but they were against weak competition. The quality that made Vera stick out so much though was his personality. The guy had charisma coming coming out of the wazoo. I’m pretty sure he took the mic and declared he would soon hold belts in two different weight divisions. In fact, I think he also put Chuck Liddell on notice. The problem was that before this, he had only fought in 4 professional MMA fights. Probably a little early to make such pronouncements, but, regardless, his star began to quickly rise. The he started facing better competition and… well, you see the results.

In reality, I think the best thing for him is to be brought back down to earth. Fortunately for him, he’s about as popular in the Philippines as Mickey Mouse is here so the UFC is going to keep him on board.

(formerly TheFightJournal)

by Lucas2 on Oct 20, 2008 3:27 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I think Vera still has some potential, but as he is now NOT a contender at any weight, he should be motivated to win. The UFC isn’t going to keep him and pay that much, when they can get better performances for a lot less money. Don’t forget, TUF is going to be over soon, and there are 3-4 legit LHWs coming out of that show, imo. Plus they may still have Texiera available. There is no room for overpaid underperformers at LHW, imo.

http://eliotmarshall.com/

by BJJDenver on Oct 20, 2008 5:40 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Liddell vs Vera

Match them up now. They’re both coming off losses and lackluster performances. Plus it should be an exciting fight. Let’s see who deserves to be taken seriously as a Top 10 LHW.

by klown on Oct 21, 2008 12:06 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs