Chito Vera and Sean O'Malley relive their first UFC fight - ESPN

UFC bantamweight champion Sean O'Malley and Marlon «Chito» Vera will meet for the second time on Saturday in the main event of UFC 299 in Miami.

The pairing is a rematch of a contest that took place in August 2020 (Watch on ESPN+). At that time, O'Malley was a young, rising, undefeated prospect in the UFC. Vera was a 23-fight veteran who had never quite been able to break into title contention. Vera was coming off a controversial split decision loss, while O'Malley was red-hot, fresh off two viral knockouts.

Vera won via TKO in the final minute of the opening round. That much, everyone agrees on; the result is officially on each of their records. What exactly happened, however, depends on one's perspective. The key moment of the bout occurred when Vera landed a kick to the right leg that shut down O'Malley's peroneal nerve, leaving him temporarily incapable of lifting his ankle and toes.

In other words, his foot went numb and he couldn't really move. He eventually fell over and Vera hurt him with elbows that ended the fight.

There is a history of peroneal nerve injuries in MMA, but they are exceptionally rare. And due to the rarity of the injury, O'Malley has maintained he doesn't feel like he truly lost to Vera. In fact, he has created an entire «Undefeated» clothing launch based on this notion.

On Saturday (ESPN PPV, 10 p.m.), O'Malley (17-1, 1 NC) gets to potentially «erase» the only blemish on his rocket ship of a career. Vera (23-8-1), who has won five of his past six, gets his first shot at a UFC championship. In anticipation of the rematch, here's an account of what happened on Aug. 15, 2020, from O'Malley, his coach Tim Welch, Vera and his coach Jason Parillo.

Watch the first fight yourself on ESPN+.

Sean