Cory Sandhagen was amazing to watch fight against Marlon Vera, except for one judge who scored the fight.
Sandhagen and Vera had a very exciting battle in UFC San Antonio’s bantamweight main event. Cory showed off his different techniques and kept Marlon from doing much of anything at any point during their 25-minute match. In the end, two judges gave Cory 50-45 and 49-46 scorecards, however one judge surprisingly voted for Marlon with a 48-47 scorecard.
Sandhagen was very active in the match, using a lot of different attacks while Vera tried to surprise him with feints and leg kicks. Then Sandhagen landed a knee against the fence and Vera had to get taken down. Surprisingly, even when he was on the ground, Vera managed to make Sandhagen bleed. All this made for an exciting start of the fight between two fighters – Sandhagen who is quick-off-the-mark and Vera who starts slow.
Sandhagen began the second round by throwing punches and landing a take-down. Vera tried to get him in a guillotine but Sandhagen escaped and stayed in control on the mat. He then got in side control and looked for a kimura, but instead he threw a bunch of elbows before getting back up, kicking his opponent’s body. To finish it off, Sandhagen moved around quickly while striking Vera with lots of punches and kicks to emerge victorious once again.
At the start of Round 3, Vera had a conversation with his coach and become more optimistic. Sandhagen then switched up his style so that it would be difficult for Vera to keep up. Nonetheless, “Chito” was able to land some blows on Sandhagen’s legs and body. At one point, he even threw a hard left-hand punch at Sandhagen’s face. Even though Vera kept moving forward throughout the round, they both managed to score points against each other.
At the start of the championship, Vera tried hard to prevent three takedowns but couldn’t stop Sandhagen from scoring in the standing positions. Nevertheless, she did manage to get a nice combo in at the end of the round but sadly it wasn’t enough to turn things around and give her an edge.
At the beginning of the final round, Sandhagen tried to take down Vera, but Vera got back up. They kept on fighting using punches and kicks, however only every now and then could Vera land a hit. Despite his best efforts at the end, it was obvious that this would be a victory for Sandhagen.
After the cards had been read, Sandhagen asked to fight with Merab Dvalishvili who was watching and seemed pumped.
Sandhagen won the fight making his record 4-2 over his last 6 fights, while also stopping Vera’s 4 victories in a row.
