Vera (photo via Alliance Gym.com)

By FCF Staff

As Brandon Vera gets set to make his ONE FC debut this Friday, the fighter has relayed criticism he has for the promotion that employed him for approximately eight years.

When Vera steps into the ONE FC cage on December 5th to face Igor Subora, over a year will have gone by since his final fight with the UFC, which saw him get stopped by Ben Rothwell. Earlier on in his UFC run, Vera worked his way into contender status, but closed it out losing four of his last six fights.

In a recent interview with MMA Junkie.com, Vera said he was surprised to hear that he had been cut by the UFC, and that the promotion was not going to match the ONE FC offer. Then, the 37 year-old furthered:

“I have nothing bad to say about the UFC, but I have a couple things I’m still salty about,” Vera said, before referring to his tightly contested, decision loss to Couture in 2009. “Everything from the decision with Randy Couture all the way to the PEDs and everything in between. The respect the fighters are not given is a big deal.

“My biggest thing was the respect issue. Not just for me, but for other fighters and all fighters. The stories you hear in the back, the injuries that aren’t taken care of and just the lack of respect. It’s nothing I want to dive too much into.”

Vera went on to praise the Asian based, ONE FC for how it takes care of fighters. ONE FC 23 will be hosted by the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila.