Marlon Vera fights for daughter with rare neurological condition

UFC bantamweight Marlon Vera's mission is to put a smile on his daughter's face.

That may sound like any parent, but for Vera it goes beyond providing the usual love and care. His 4-year-old daughter, Ana Paula, was diagnosed with Moebius syndrome, a rare neurological condition that renders her unable to form facial expressions.

The story first came to light during Vera's time as a cast member on "The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America." He spoke about his plans to win a contract and use that money to pay for his daughter's surgery. Going into his third UFC fight, nothing has changed.

"God willing, if everything goes well in this fight, I'm thinking of starting the operation after the fight. I'm going to try to ask for help, if the UFC can help me or not but with or without help I'm going to do it anyways. I'm going to invest my money because I want to see my daughter smile," Vera told Danny Segura of MMAFighting.com.

UFC president Dana White was touched by the story and told Vera that he and the organization would do what they could to assist him and his family. While Vera says that the support trailed off after an initial review in Las Vegas, the UFC has given him the opportunity to compete at the highest stage.

After dropping his first bout to Marco Beltran, Vera bounced back with a triangle armbar submission of Roman Salazar that netted him a $50,000 performance bonus.

A win against Davey Grant on Saturday at UFC Fight Night 84 could lead to another bonus and greater contract leverage, putting Vera that much closer to reaching his goal of helping his daughter.

"It‘d be the biggest accomplishment in my life," Vera said. "It's something I've been waiting on and I want to do it now in this moment. It's the reason why when I step on the Octagon, I step in to win."