Coach Conversation | UFC 299: O'Malley vs Vera 2

Chartier: I think with Marlon Vera, obviously he’s well-rounded, but it’s his toughness.

He takes damage in all his fights — maybe not all his fights — but he can take a lot of damage in fights and he’ll find a way to win. He’ll get hurt, you think he’s about to get finished or rocked, and he’ll come back and win.

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Look at Frankie Edgar. Even look at his fight with (New England Cartel member Rob Font) — Rob hit him with a bunch of good shots and he just took it. Rob hit him with a bunch of strikes in that fight and he came out unscathed. The Pedro Munhoz fight was close to where I thought he might have lost that fight The Dominick Cruz fight was back-and-forth until he got the knockout.

Kyte: He can be outlanded, losing the fight, and yet he frequently finds the shots he needs to shift things in his favor or get the finish.

Chartier: Right, so I think that’s why his big thing is his toughness and that he’s well-rounded. He’s a gamer; he figures out a way to win and he’s never out of a fight.

With O’Malley, it’s his mindset and his precision striking. I think he’s a very smart fighter, he chooses his shots wisely, and he’s got a really strong mind that allows him to do the things that he does.

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Kyte: You guys have obviously prepared for Chito in the past. When you’re game planning for a guy that is a gamer, that is durable, how do you work through that in camp? How do you build a game plan around a guy that isn’t going to go anywhere?

Chartier: I think it’s having a disciplined mindset to go all 25 minutes. Don’t look for the finish. Prepare for 25 and anything less than that is a bonus, but you have to be prepared to win the exchanges for 25 minutes, and let the cards fall how they fall.

Don’t look to try to finish this guy because that’s how you’re going to (empty your tank) or he’s going to catch you with something in a scramble; you have to keep your discipline and be prepared to go 25 hard minutes, because he’s going to make it dirty, too.

Go in with that mindset of “I’m not going to try to finish this guy; I’m just gonna touch him” and then good things will happen from there.

RELATED: O'Malley vs Vera 1 Free Fight 

Kyte: With O’Malley, in terms of the precision — and I think you’re right about him picking his shots — I’ve been thinking a lot about how you force him out of his mode, where he prefers to counter.

When he gets you backing up, he’s good there too when you’re in danger, but primarily, he wants to go second, hurt you, and then we go from there. So how do you address that in terms of putting him off his best trait?

Chartier: First, it’s controlling the cage — put him on his back foot right away, which gives you the “high ground” advantage in MMA.

I think you’ve got to make him go first. Whether that’s constant feinting, which Chito has been able to do in the past, or touching him with long-range weapons to pull those out because a guy like him has no problem moving backwards, staying off the fence; waiting for you to go and then countering.

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But when you’re not giving him what he wants, hopefully you can make him decide, “All right, I’m gonna go first.” He’s still effective and still dangerous, but you’re getting him out of his game a little, making him play your game, and now you’re leading the dance.

We talk about going “first and third,” but the first is going to be a big feint, where you’re trying to counter the counterpuncher by drawing out his counter without committing to anything and looking to land that third shot.

Kyte: O’Malley strikes me as a guy that would be happy to have a round where nobody throws too many shots and he lands at a higher clip, a little cleaner, and wins rounds that way.

Chartier: He knows that if there are no takedowns and equal striking, people are probably going to score the round for him because (1) he’s the champion, and (2) people know he wants to keep the fight on the feet, and if he’s able to do that, it’s almost like he’s winning by default.

Path to Victory for Each Fighter

Kyte: Everyone would love a 10-second knockout or a quick submission, but that’s not often how these things go, especially not at the championship level. Instead, it’s usually the competitor that has crafted the better game plan and did the better job of executing things inside the Octagon that comes away with their hand raised and the gold around their waist.

So, how does either man get it done on Saturday night?

X Factor

Kyte: If there were one thing that was going to significantly impact how this fight plays out — that swings it in one direction or the other — what would it be?

Chartier: I was gonna say, ‘Can Chito get a takedown on him?’ but I think maybe it’s gonna be if Chito comes out fast. Is Chito gonna do what he normally does and be a slow starter, hope for that one big shot — because he’s willing to give away 4:30 of a round to look for one big shot.

But O’Malley’s not a guy that has shown to have a weak jaw or anything like that; it’s not like he’s been chinny in any of these fights, or really hurt, so is Chito gonna roll the dice, come out slow, and hope for that one big shot? Or is he gonna realize, ‘This is a title fight; I can’t fight how I’ve been fighting because chances are if I do that, I’m gonna give away some rounds, and then I have to get desperate, take some chances against one of the best counter-strikers in the UFC.”

I think the X factor is how does Chito approach the fight from an urgency standpoint? Is he gonna have urgency early, and, if he doesn’t, it favors O’Malley. If he does come out with some urgency early — attack the lead leg, mix in some takedowns, make Sean uncomfortable — I think he can get momentum and be really dangerous.

He’s playing the game really well, better than almost everyone else in the game from a business standpoint, and it pisses off other fighters, because they want that. It’s not that they’re mad at him, but it’s a normal thing to be jealous of what he’s doing because he’s the champion, although he was getting that stuff before he was the champion.

Kyte: The last two fights, you now have to give him the credit after they went the way they did.

Close fight with Yan, edge out the former champion, answered all the questions about “Can this kid go through a tough fight?” and then beat Aljo for the belt. But before that, it was like, “Who have you beaten to get all this?”

Everyone wanted to be the guy to beat him and show it was all BS.

Chartier: I think a lot of people go in there with that mindset already, and he’s dealt with it, because he’s a good counter-striker. A good counter-striker wants you to get aggressive and emotional, so it’s smart on his part.

I think you can do that stuff, but you can do it tactfully. That could be Chito coming out, being aggressive with the lead leg, feinting a lot, being patient, and that might piss off O’Malley. But I don’t think that really affects O’Malley. I think all these fights are the same for him.

Kyte: “Everybody wants to knock me out because they hate me, they’re jealous of me.”

If you’re Parillo, if you’re in Chico’s corner, do you tell him to go out and bang a low kick right away?