Brandon Vera Promises He Will Be Back In The Cage In 2019

Brandon “The Truth” Vera is back at last.

The ONE Heavyweight World Champion returned to the cage for the first time in almost two years to defend his belt at ONE: CONQUEST OF CHAMPIONS.

His bout against Mauro “The Hammer” Cerilli at the Mall Of Asia Arena in Manila, Philippines could not have gone any better, as he finished the Italian with a left hook after 64 seconds.

After the match on Friday, 23 November, he spoke with ONE Championship commentator Michael “The Voice” Schiavello, who asked the Filipino-American whether he expected such a quick stoppage.

“I never plan or think I’m going to finish a fight like that,” Vera admitted.

“I just want to go in, fully prepared, pushing the pace, and make them dance to my tune. When they start to try to dance with me, that’s when I can catch them.”

Though he took him out in little more than a minute, “The Truth” was quick to credit his opponent.

He had predicted he would have to be careful of Cerilli’s power ahead of their meeting, and he explained how he was proved right.

“I got out of the way of the first overhand right, but I felt the wind as it swung by and thought, ‘Oh no, you can’t hit me with that. That’s going to hurt really bad,'” he said.

“I think he hit me with a left hook as I was hitting him with a left hook at the same time, but I stepped out.

“He punches hard, man. He’s an amazing addition to the ONE heavyweight lineup. I hope he works his way back up and we get to fight again.”

Vera was able to stop his challenger by using his aggression against him. He caught Cerilli on the chin as he charged forward, to finish him with one blow.

He added that the stoppage came as a result of a lot of hard work in the gym.

“We’ve been working that fade-away left hook for a long, long time,” the 41-year-old explained.

“Especially for this camp, we saw that it might come in handy. I hadn’t got to use it yet, but this was the one.”

To finish, Vera attempted to put his fans’ fears to rest, and vowed he would never take so long between bouts.

Though he said his time would be taken up by other endeavors, too, he promised he would be back next year.

“I plan on having a busy 2019, doing entertainment and coming back into the cage,” he explained.

“I’ve asked to be on the event in October in Japan, so we’ll see if that comes to fruition. I promise you, I will not be gone for two years again – unless I’m getting paid an absurd amount of money,” joked the heavyweight kingpin.