Brandon “The Truth” Vera might be 41 years old, but he has no plans of slowing down.
He revealed that much following his second successful title defense last Friday, 23 November.
The reigning ONE Heavyweight World Champion needed just 64 seconds to knock out Italy's Mauro Cerilli in the main event of ONE: CONQUEST OF CHAMPIONS, which emanated from the Mall Of Asia Arena in Manila, Philippines.
A perfectly-timed left hook from "The Truth" landed square on Cerilli's chin, just as the latter lunged forward looking to deliver a heavy blow of his own.
Down and defenseless on the canvas after one hard punch, the referee quickly jumped in to call a halt the contest. That win pushed Vera’s record to 16-7 (1 NC).
"Two years were a long time. I’m sorry I’ve been away for so long, but it looks like I can still do it. I’ve been watching Mauro’s tapes every night. Even as I sleep, I watch him train. I watch him fight," he said.
"I watch everything he does. I know he swings hard. He did punch me in the mouth, and it hurt. When he fell down after the punch, I was pretty surprised. So I’m glad I got that left hook in and dropped him with it.”
After pulling off a stellar performance, Vera’s retirement from mixed martial arts may not come anytime soon as he aims to become a two-division titleholder in the world's largest martial arts organization.
"I want to fight the best athletes in the world until my body doesn’t want to do it anymore," he explained.
"I want to fight whoever owns the ONE Light Heavyweight World Title. Right now, that’s Aung La N Sang. He’s an amazing athlete. That’s who I want to fight next.”
Aung La N Sang is Myanmar’s most celebrated athlete. He is the first world champion in the country's sporting history, and even accomplished the rare feat of capturing two ONE World Titles in separate weight classes.
The 33-year-old is riding an impressive five-bout win streak, winning his last three outings by way of knockout.
Whether he gets the title shot he is hoping for or not, Vera's ultimate goal is to go down in mixed martial arts history as one of the greatest competitors to ever step foot in the cage.
“It’s my goal to become one of the best in the history of this sport,” he vowed. “No one is going to stop me.”