Marlon Vera reveals $200K watch heist struck his home on eve of O'Malley title fight

Marlon Vera’s 2024 UFC bantamweight title challenge against Sean O’Malley was preceded by a $200,000 robbery at his California home — a detail the Ecuadorian fighter has only now made public.

Vera, who lost to O’Malley at UFC 299 in Miami, told Michael Bisping that his home’s security cameras went dark around 7 p.m. the night before the fight. His wife assumed a power cut was to blame. It was only the following morning, hours before the biggest bout of his career, that police called to inform him his house had been broken into and his safe taken.

The safe contained Vera’s watch collection, which he valued at roughly $200,000. “Those were kind of investments. Those watches are money,” Vera said. “I’m counting in my head like, ‘Now I’m $200K short.’” He added that the timing of the police call was far from ideal: “Wrong time to let me know.”

Vera suspects the thief had inside knowledge of the property. The intruder entered, located the safe without searching the rest of the house, and was gone within five minutes — a level of precision that Vera believes points to someone familiar with his home. A photo of a suspect was shared with police, but no arrest was ever made.

“The cops never found the guy,” Vera said. “I have a photo and I have this random person accusing, like, ‘Oh, I know this guy.’ The guy came in, took the safe and took it through the front door. It took him five minutes.”

The revelation adds a grim footnote to what was already a difficult period for Vera. He went on to lose four consecutive fights beginning with the O’Malley defeat, before halting that skid with a stoppage victory over Charles Jourdain at UFC 331. Vera’s overall record now stands at 24-12.