Chito Vera wins the ‘Most Developed Fighter’ award in 2022 at the UFC | Other Sports | Sports

The Brazilian Álex Pereira, the Ecuadorian Marlon Chito Vera, the Chinese Zhang Weili, the Australian Jack Della Maddalena and the Mexican Yazmín Jáuregui were some of the winners at the 2022 MMA Awards, as announced ESPN MMA on their social media accounts this Thursday.

Pereira was accredited with the Fighter of the Year award, Weili with the Fighter of the Year award, Vera was honored with the Most Developed Fighter award, Della Maddalena takes the Rookie of the Year trophy and Jáuregui the Rookie of the Year award, for their performance this year in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) promotion.

Marlon Chito Vera proposes to Aljamain Sterling to fight for the UFC bantamweight title

Other recognitions are Fight of the Year, the one starring Glover Teixera and Jirí Procházka on the UFC 275 card; Knockout of the Year, from Leon Edwards to Kamaru Usman at UFC 278; Submission of the Year, from Charles Oliveira to Justin Gaethje; and UFC Event of the Year, UFC 281 Adesanya vs. Pereira.

Chito Vera’s new tattoo on the head is a feline that causes a sensation in the American MMA press

“This year, Vera was a giant. She inflicted so much damage on fellow contender Rob Font in April that Font still doesn’t have a fight scheduled seven months later. And even though he got off to his trademark slow start against Dominick Cruz in August, it seemed like it was only a matter of time before Vera opened up in that fight. Once he did, he handed Cruz one of the worst losses of his career, ”says the analyst at ESPN MMA Brett Okamoto, speaking to ESPN Sports.

With those victories Vera got into the top 5 of the bantamweight division, although he ends the year in fourth place. The Manabí athlete was looking for a third match that would allow him to close 2022 as a title challenger; However, the Russian Petr Yan (former number one) preferred a duel with Sean O’Malley in October and Cory Sandhagen apparently declined a contention proposal with Chito Vera before the end of the season. More demanding, in November the 135-pound native of Chone proposed to champion Aljamain Sterling to meet for the division crown.

“Let’s be clear on one thing: the Ecuadorian fighter was already a fantastic bantamweight going into 2022. But as we turn the page to 2023, expectations are at an all-time high due to the skill and mental maturity he displayed last year. Vera, who just turned 30 in December, is at her best. She has an undeniable confidence in him right now, and she has all the technique and physical prowess to back it up. If you look at Vera’s 2021 campaign, it was solid, but nothing spectacular. He won two of three rounds over Davey Grant and was in a very close fight with a nearly retired Frankie Edgar until he got a K.O. late,” Okamoto mentions.

“Vera has always been good and certainly always entertaining, but this category is about a marked improvement. It is about raising one’s status by an entire level. Vera did that in 2022. He went from being a perennial fighter of the top 10 to a possible champion”, emphasizes the analyst of ESPN MMA.

Chito has won four of the last five fights in the UFC, falling only to the Brazilian José Aldo, who is the history of the company after announcing his retirement from mixed martial arts.

(D)