With an 8-0 mark as a pro, casual fans might think that Brandon Vera
is a young pup looking to take down the old dog Tim Sylvia on Saturday night. But in
fact, Vera, at age 30, is just five months younger than Sylvia.

One reason he doesn’t have a longer ledger is that he’s currently
embroiled in a mudslinging back and forth with his ex manager. The
legal war hangs over his head, as the California athletic commission
is set to give a ruling on the manager’s desire to retain a percentage
of the fighter’s earnings, and the fighter’s wish to dissolve the link
in entirety.

Doesn’t sound like an unfettered landscape in which a fighter can be
focused at an optimal mental level, does it?

“I have to prioritize what’s important, and Tim Sylvia punching my
face is the most important thing to me now,” Vera told ESPN.com.

Vera believes his legal woes are almost totally in the rear view
mirror and he can get down to real business, in the Octagon. He tells
ESPN.com that he’s signed a six fight deal with Dana White and company
and is geared up to chop down the veteran.

“I don’t really like predictions, but I don’t want it to go the
judges,” says the California resident, who holds a 4-0 record in the
UFC’s cage. “Tim hasn’t fought anybody like me. The closest thing is
Randy Couture and look how that turned out. I don’t like to make that
comparison, but I’ll push the pace like Randy did. Tim said things
about me, and after the match, I want him to say, “Jesus Christ, this
guy is good. Or at least think it.”

OCTAGONAL ODDS AND ENDS
Forest Griffin’s interview with Joe Rogan after his explosive upset win over Shogun Rua at the alast UFC PPV was comedic gold. He hugged Rogan, then said, “I haven’t done that many drugs but I think that’s what ecstacy feels like, baby.”

“I want to thank Shogun, he’s a bad man,” Griffin said, and thanked his posse. “It takes a lot people to be good at this fighting nonsense.”

Aftre being kayoed by Keith Jardine last year, he admitted, he sat around, “got depressed and ate a lot cookies. But my friends and family told me, ‘Forest you’re not good at anything else, you better get back to fighting.’

Then he saw Rua landing an elbow on replay. “That was nice I ain’t hating, that was awesome.”

He was beat at the end, he said, and held off saying “effin tired,” because he promised his mom he wouldn’t cuss. The finishing choke, he said, wasn’t even that strong but “fatigue is a sonuvabitch. Oh, I guess I cussed.”

Then he forgave Rua and his gang for talking trash, and said he’d be back.

Humble, humorous, talented…he has a fan here, for sure.