ONE Championship: Brandon Vera books Manila homecoming fight against Amir Aliakbari
- Former ONE heavyweight champ has not fought since he surrendered the title to Arjan Bhullar in May 2021
- Retirement seems to be near for 45-year-old Filipino-American, but he will first take on Iran’s Aliakbari at ONE 164 on December 3
Brandon Vera is not ready to call it a career just yet.
The former ONE Championship heavyweight king will return to action against Amir Aliakbari at ONE 164 on December 3 in Manila, the promotion has revealed.
It will be the Filipino-American’s first fight in almost two years.
45-year-old Vera (16-9) was last in action in May 2021, when he suffered a second-round TKO loss to Indian-Canadian Arjan Bhullar, surrendering the ONE heavyweight MMA title in the process.
He had held the belt since 2015, when he won it with a 26-second head-kick knockout of Paul Cheng, and defended it with first-round knockouts of Hideki Sekine and Mauro Cerilli before finally relinquishing it to Bhullar.
Vera has been competing professionally since 2002, and has battled Randy Couture, Jon Jones, and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in the UFC, before making the switch to ONE – where he headlined the promotion’s 100th event, opposite Aung La N Sang in Tokyo.
With such a long career behind him, there was some speculation as to whether Vera would ever fight again after losing to Bhullar, however, it seems that the allure of fighting in front of his dedicated Filipino fans was too exciting a prospect to resist.
