Marlon Vera: Figueiredo should have been lost a point for UFC Saudi Arabia kick

Marlon Vera thinks Deiveson Figueiredo should have been docked a point at UFC on ABC 7.

Vera (23-10-1 MMA, 15-9 UFC) was not happy with the axe kick Figueiredo (24-3-1 MMA, 13-3-1 UFC) landed on him while he was grounded on his back – just after the Round 1 horn sounded in their bantamweight bout this past Saturday in Abu Dhabi.

“Chito” lost the fight by unanimous decision, but says if referee Keith Peterson acknowledged the illegal blow and penalized Figueiredo for it, the outcome would have been different.

“The only thing that I want to take away from this fight, or at least I want to start with, it was like, that axe kick that he landed in the first round, that wasn’t an accident,” Vera on his YouTube channel. “That went straight into my face. I feel like that should be taken a point deducted automatically. That’s my thought and what I believe. You go by the rules, you don’t kick a grounded opponent. I would get it if I was playing the game with the hand.

“When you’re a downed opponent – not down, but I was in my guard and that was a clean-ass kick to the face. … That’s something different that could change the route of the fight because I’m getting my head bounced on the ground. At the end of the day, that’s an illegal shot, and I would say if that would be a point deduction we could be talking a different story right now.”

Had Peterson deducted a point from Figueiredo, the bout would have been ruled a majority draw. Vera also addressed coming back five months after being battered in his title fight against bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley at UFC 299 in March.

“I just want to say one thing about me coming back a little too quick, me and the team definitely got to the conclusion that we definitely came back too soon,” Vera said. “I went into a five-round war with the champion and we all agreed that after my March title fight that we would come back either November in New York or December.

“There was no chance of us coming back earlier, so I feel that was a mistake on us. I would say on me, on the team’s decision, because at the end of the day, we are a team and we all agreed to come back even if we say not to. Sometimes you feel good and you just say, ‘F*ck it, let’s do it,’ and you roll the dice.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ABC 7.