Six days after Brandon Vera battles Randy Couture in the main event of UFC 105 this Saturday, Vera's wife, Kerry, battles Couture's ex-wife, Kim, at the fifth installment of Strikeforce Challenger Series in Kansas City, KS.
Coincidence? Probably not.
The Veras have been training hard for their respective fights, says Brandon, albeit in separate corners of the gym. They plan to attend each others fights. For Brandon, it's his 18th dance in the pros, while it's only Kerry's second.
Brandon says having a fighter for a wife is pretty drama free.
"It makes life easy," he said. "From a guy's perspective, I don't have a girl calling me all the damn time," he said. 'Hey, why are you still at the gym? Why are all those girls talking to you? Hey why this, why that?' From my perspective, I see her training, I'm not like, 'hey, why are you rolling with a bunch of dudes on the mat?'
"We have the same coaches. We train at the same time. We don't train together. So when we train, we come home, we eat, and there's no arguing, there's no yelling, we just watch TV. Everybody's tired.
There is one down side to the fighting couple's life together--their house is like a college dorm.
"The house is going to (expletive)," said Brandon. "Dishes are piling up and the floor's dirty."
Brandon is fully confident, though, that his wife is going to clean up in the cage.
"She's going to whoop (Kim's) ass," he said. "I feel bad for Kim. She don't know what the (expletive) she's going to get into. I like Kim, too. Kim's a nice person. But she should've passed on this one."
Brandon "The Truth" Vera dishes on his improved stamina that could give him an advantage when he faces Randy Couture at UFC 105 in Manchester, England.
Brandon Vera needs a win over Soszyski to be able to call out some of the big names in the UFC's light heavyweight division. (Courtesy of Steve Cofield, ESPN 1100 Radio.)
UFC light heavyweight Brandon Vera is already in training for Matt Hamill, whom he faces at UFC 101 on August 8 in Philadelphia.
"Honestly, I didn't care who it was," he says of his thoughts on facing Hamill. "I just said okay. I don't care who I fight anymore, it's go time."
MMAInsider caught up with with the San Diego resident as he returned from the Barrett Firearms firing range in Tennesse, where he spent the day shooting with company owners. A veteran of the US Air Force, Vera was required to know guns, but there's a simpler explanation on why he likes them.
"I grew up in Virginia," he laughs. "Guns are part of life over there."
Vera sampled a variety of weapons, including the REC7, an automatic rifle not available to the public. But his favorite was the Model 82A1 .50 caliber rifle, a massive gun that can kill from a mile away.
"That thing is scary," he said. "I don't know if I want one."
Vera shoots regularly, and counts a .45 caliber Sig Sauer as his weapon of choice.
"It's super accurate and super reliable," he said. "That's my favorite, favorite gun."
On August 8, though, his only weapons will be his hands, legs, elbows, and knees.
"It's going to be good times," he said of his meeting with Hamill.
Typically, most people automatically say whoever holds the title in the UFC is the No. 1 guy in that division, at least in the UFC, right?
Well, Keith Jardine isn't so sure... and that's not because he's bragging and saying that he is the No. 1 guy in the UFC's 205-pound division.
Obviously referring to a crazy round-robin of wins and losses, the UFC's light heavyweight division does make for some strange MMA math. Rampage beat Liddell who beat Wanderlei who beat Jardine who beat Forrest who beat Rampage and is the champ. Say what?!
"This was a huge fight," said Jardine after his win over Brandon Vera at UFC 89 before adding, "The division is weird. Forrest (Griffin) is the champ right now, but who knows who the best guy is? It could be the number one guy. It could be the number ten guy. There's a lot of undefeated guys. There's a lot of guys coming up. I think it's going take a year or so to sort this thing out."
Keith Jardine talks about facing Brandon Vera at UFC 89 on Saturday, Oct. 18, in Birmingham, England. He carries a lot of respect for Vera, but is excited for the match-up and ready to put himself back in the hunt for the light heavyweight title.
MMAWeekly.com will have live play-by-play of UFC 89, but it will also air in the U.S. on a tape delayed basis on Spike TV on Saturday night.
Our friends over at BetUs.com have odds up for many of the upcoming UFC and WEC fights. Of course, they've got a couple of lines for Saturday's UFC 89 event in Birmingham, England.
The latest odds for UFC 89 as of Tuesday evening have Michael Bisping favored over Chris Leben, and Brandon Vera over Keith Jardine.
This is the Ultimate Fighting Championship's official promotional video for UFC 89 in England. The Oct. 18 fight card features a main event of Ultimate Fighter alumni Michael Bisping vs. Chris Leben.
The main card is scheduled to air on Spike TV at 9 p.m. ET/PT on a tape delayed basis: -Michael Bisping vs. Chris Leben -Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou (#8 Light Heavyweight in the World)* vs. Luiz Cane -Keith Jardine (#10 Light Heavyweight in the World)* vs. Brandon Vera -Marcus Davis vs. Paul Kelly -Paul Taylor vs. Chris Lytle
ESPN.com has a UFC video interview with Brandon Vera, who is slated to face Keith Jardine in a light heavyweight showdown at UFC 89 in England next week.
As he told MMAWeekly.com, weight cutting was a problem for Vera in his last fight, he hadn't cut weight in nine years, fighting primarily at heavyweight. Vera says he's ready for Jardine's awkward style and has a game plan for the Greg Jackson-trained fighter.
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