Brandon Vera Insists He’s “Not Dodging Nobody”

In an attempt to dispel the rumors that he may be a punk for avoiding Lyoto Machida, Brandon Vera claims he had good reasons for turning that fight down (he needs time to train with awkward kung fu enthusiasts) and insists that Wanderlei Silva and Dan Henderson both turned down fights against him. So now who’s the punk? Answer: everyone but Machida.

It’s all here in this MMA Rated video, where Vera goes on to say that he moved down to light heavyweight to take the fight against Reese Andy as “a favor”.

Seems like a lot of UFC fighters are doing favors in order to get this July 19 Anti-Affliction card off the ground. And you know what they say, fighters are like the mob when it comes to favors. One day — and that day may never come — they’ll call upon you and ask for a favor in return. That is what they say, right? If not, they should.

Tags: Affliction,Brandon Vera,Dan Henderson,Lyoto Machida,MMA,Reese Andy,UFC,Wanderlei Silva

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kwagnuth- June 26, 2008 at 6:09 am

I agree all the wining has gotta go. I'm not even a Vera fan anymore and not because he lost twice in a row but because he wined like a piss baby after his recent loss. I also noticed that after his loss to Silvia the first thing he did was let the whole world know about his broken hand right away. At least save the excuses for the press conference.

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shutupandfight- June 25, 2008 at 11:44 pm

i like Vera...but let the Werdum shit go man.

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Rick- June 25, 2008 at 8:40 pm

That interviewer dude is a creepy goof.

He asks dumb questions and makes most guys mad too.

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Me- June 25, 2008 at 5:52 pm

@ Ouch- probably something more like this "It took us an f'ing year to work out a damn contract with you and I heard too much crap from the fans, so I can't get rid of you now, move to 205"

close enough but more detail.

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Ouch! That hurts- June 25, 2008 at 4:30 pm

I have a feeling the "favor" was put to him like this "I don't want to have to fire you so do me a favor and go down to 205".

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Dave- June 25, 2008 at 3:42 pm

To be fair, I think it's well within Vera's right to turn down Machida. For your first experience in a new division, coming off two straight losses and having to cut weight for the very first time, it hardly seems reasonable to ask a guy to fight a top 3 fighter. Let him get a match in at the weight, for crying out loud. If the UFC had asked Bisping to fight Okami or Hendo for his first match at 185, everyone would be crying foul.

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