Brandon Vera – FightPages

"The Truth"

Brandon Vera

16Wins•9Losses•1No Contest

Photo from Jess Escaros Jr. for the Philippine News Agency via pna.gov.ph

Win Rate

62 %

Finish Rate

75 %

Decision Win %

57 %

Brandon Vera

Age

Height

6' 3 (191 cm)

Reach

79 in. (6' 7/200 cm)

Ape-Index

1.047

Stance

Orthodox

Nationality

United States

Main Division

Heavyweight

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Coach

Lloyd Irvin

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Rank

Biography

Vera was born and raised in Norfolk, Virginia, and attended Lake Taylor High School where he excelled in wrestling and earned a four-year athletic scholarship to Old Dominion University. However, he dropped out of Old Dominion after a year and a half when he felt college was not for him, and enlisted himself in the United States Air Force. Arthroscopic surgery repaired the ligaments, but he had nerve damage from the experience, causing him to be unable to use his right arm. Vera returned to Virginia where he steadily rehabilitated his arm, and eventually was fit enough to enter the Grapplers Quest submission wrestling competitions on the East Coast. There, his solitary training methods caught the attention of Lloyd Irvin, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu Black Belt and coach, who invited him to train with his school.

Fighter Trivia

While staying in the Philippines, he trained Filipino actor Richard Gutierrez in martial arts and was given a role as an assassin for Philippine primetime television show, Kamandag on the GMA Network. In the latter part of his training for UFC 89, Vera was reportedly held at gun point by two men attempting to rob the house in which he was staying. In 2016, Vera revealed that he was relocating to the Philippines full time, to help grow the sport of mixed martial arts in his ancestral homeland.