On the heels of two big wins in 2024, Mario Bautista is on the cusp of title contention.

The 31-year-old bantamweight has seven straight wins, including his biggest hide yet – former UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo this past fall at UFC 307. Before that, a win over recent contender Ricky Simon cemented his status as more than just another 135-pounder.

Up next, Bautista (15-2 MMA, 9-2 UFC) goes after consecutive win No. 8, and it'll be against a recent title challenger and longtime bantamweight fixture in the UFC: Marlon Vera (23-10-1 MMA, 15-9 UFC). The two were supposed to fight two weeks from now, but had their bout shifted by a full five weeks to UFC 316 on June 7 in Newark, N.J.

The matchup is an interesting one for Bautista since Vera fought his teammate, then-champ Sean O'Malley, for the title a little more than a year ago. But he said there's no extra beef to be found.

"There's no animosity between us or anything," Bautista recently told MMA Junkie Radio. "I've seen him around in Boston. We've said hi to each other here and there. We actually have the same manager, too, so I've seen him around. … But no animosity between us."

What it amounts to, then, for Bautista is a business trip, and a very serious one. He currently sits at No. 10 in the UFC's official bantamweight rankings. He got through after his win over Aldo.

But Vera is ranked seventh, which means, in theory, a Bautista win suddenly has him right there.

"He's No. (7) in the division, so that puts me right on the edge of the top five," Bautista said. "That gets me a top-five fight, getting past 'Chito' there. He's a big name, as well. I'm at the point of my career I'm fighting big names and people with big followings, and are good fighters, as well."

Although Vera is only about six months older than Bautista, he's got more official fight mileage under him. And even though the Ecuadorian fought for the title in 2024, he still has dropped three of his past four fights.

But Vera's also never been put away. All 10 of his losses have been decisions, and that may factor into why Bautista isn't counting on seeing a lot different out of him come fight night.

"I don't see him changing too much," he said. "I think he'll try to fix some things to get to be where he wants to be, and to continue to do the things that win some fights – maybe working on wrestling defense, because that's been his Achilles' heel the past few fights. But I don't see too much difference. I think once we start going, he's going to fall back into his usual habits."

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Mario Bautista expecting vintage-style Marlon Vera at UFC 316

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