Matches to Make After UFC on ESPN 41

Marlon Vera’s status as a bantamweight title contender is no longer a question of if, but of when.

In the main event of UFC on ESPN 41 on Saturday, “Chito” faced former Ultimate Fighting Championship and World Extreme Cagefighting titleholder Dominick Cruz, in Cruz’s longtime adoptive hometown of San Diego. Under the brightest lights of his professional career thus far, Vera did not wilt, overcoming a fast start by Cruz to catch the famously elusive “Dominator” with increasing frequency as the fight wore on.

Even if the momentum had swung in Vera’s favor by the middle of the fourth round, however, the end was a shock, as Vera caught Cruz with a perfectly placed left head kick that smashed his…