Ahead of his fight against Cory Sandhagen this weekend, we take a look at the health condition Marlon Vera’s daughter suffers from
In 2011, Marlon Vera and his wife Maria Paulina Escobar welcomed their first child, a daughter named Ana Paula. Soon after her birth, doctors soon revealed that Ana Paula had been born with a condition, but at the time all they could say was that it wasn’t Down syndrome.
Vera joined the UFC in 2014, and he has made it his mission to not only advance his young and promising career, but also to raise the money necessary for his daughter’s expensive surgery.
The bantamweight has travelled a long and winding road, but he hasn’t done it alone. Vera created a GoFundMe to raise money for Ana Paula’s operation. The total cost of the operation is estimated at $43,500, and the MMA community donated selflessly.
The diagnosis of Moebius syndrome for ‘Chito’ and his family’s daughter came 48 hours after the initial symptoms had appeared. Moebius syndrome is a congenital disorder that primarily affects the muscles used in expression and eye movement. The sixth and seventh cranial nerves are responsible for controlling eye movement and facial expression, and their absence or underdevelopment causes this condition.
Recently, Marlon Vera commented on the initial shock he felt upon hearing the news in a UFC Connect video:
“The doctor came in and he’s like ‘Okay guys, there’s definitely something going on with her, it’s not Down’s syndrome but we are not very sure what condition she is born with. And everybody in that room was just looking at each other like, ‘F**k’… I remember, before, when they did the imaging and everything to see her, everything was normal… Why in the happiest day of our life do we receive worst news, ‘the kid is born with a condition’ and there’s nothing that you can do about it. That just broke me.”
Marlon Vera claims fighting at the UFC Apex Facility reminds him of his childhood
This weekend, Marlon Vera and Cory Sandhagen will fight in a five-round main event at the AT&T Centre. This is one of the most exciting matchups of early 2023, featuring two of the sport’s most dynamic strikers.
A number of people were taken aback when they found out that Vera vs. Sandhagen wouldn’t be held in front of a sold-out arena crowd. This fight looks like it could explode on paper, but unfortunately, spectators won’t be able to witness the action from inside the ring.
Since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Apex has played host to some UFC events. Although Vera won’t have the chance to relive the experience of fighting at the UFC Apex in front of a raucous crowd, he says the atmosphere brings him back to his youth in Ecuador.
During a recent appearance on The MMA Hour, Vera explained:
“The feeling I got when I fought Cruz in a sold-out arena, it was fucking epic,” Vera said. “There’s something about the fucking Apex though. There’s tense fucking energy in the cage, smaller, barely some crowd. It brings some memories of scrapping on the streets. 10 of your homies, 10 of their homies circle that thing up and just scrap. It’s more personal in the Apex, it brings a little more of the intensity and darkness when you walk the walk.”
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