[9] Causing ruckus and getting into street fights throughout his youth, Vera started training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu in his newly-adopted hometown of Guayaquil at the age of 16.

In May 2014, it was revealed that Vera was a cast member of The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America, competing for Team Werdum.

[11] Subsequently, Vera was forced out of his semi-final bout with a skin infection and was replaced by Guido Cannetti.

[12] Vera made his official debut against fellow castmate Marco Beltrán on November 15, 2014, at UFC 180.

[14] For his next bout, Vera faced Roman Salazar on August 8, 2015, at UFC Fight Night 73.

Guangyou was cleared of wrongdoing after it was determined by USADA that he had possibly ingested tainted meat from China.

[21] In turn, the bout was postponed again due to alleged visa issues for Guangyou, which restricted the timing of his travel.

[23] Vera was briefly tabbed as a short notice replacement to face Jimmie Rivera on January 15, 2017.

[25][26] Vera was an injury replacement for Henry Briones to face Brad Pickett on March 18, 2017, at UFC Fight Night 107.

[33] Vera faced Douglas Silva de Andrade on February 3, 2018, at UFC Fight Night 125.

[42] In turn, Vera pulled out of the fight on February 27 due to illness and the bout was scrapped from the event.

[54] Vera was expected to face Eddie Wineland on March 28, 2020, at UFC on ESPN: Ngannou vs.

[56] Instead, Vera faced Song Yadong in a featherweight bout on May 16, 2020, at UFC on ESPN: Overeem vs.

[61][62] Vera faced José Aldo on December 19, 2020, at UFC Fight Night: Thompson vs Neal.

[64] A rematch of Vera's 2016 bout with Davey Grant took place on June 19, 2021, at UFC on ESPN 25.

[77] Vera was scheduled to face Cory Sandhagen on February 18, 2023, at UFC Fight Night 219.

[82] However, Cejudo withdrew in late June due to a shoulder injury,[83] and was replaced by Pedro Munhoz.

His eldest daughter has a rare neurological condition Möbius syndrome, for which Vera created a GoFundMe account.

In June 2018, Vera announced that they had raised sufficient donations for a surgery, which was planned to take place in California during the summer of 2018.