Cory Sandhagen was really surprised when judge Joel Ojeda gave the win to Marlon Vera in the night’s main event. Sandhagen stated at the press conference that he felt like he hit harder and took down Marlon more often throughout the fight.
I thought I was doing really well in most of the rounds. Although, I’m not sure about the third round since it felt like it was pretty close between us. Still, I knew for sure that I won the first two rounds. Even though it was confusing when we got a split decision at the end, that’s just how MMA works until the rules change. If they had counted any of my first two rounds as victories for my opponent then that would have caused some serious trouble!
On Saturday, 30-year-old Sandhagen was amazing in his victory. He landed more punches, kicks and other moves than Vera did. Altogether, this was a classic performance by Sandhagen and it helped to stop Vera’s four match win streak while also putting himself closer to being the champion of a 135 pound weight class.
Chris Lee and Sal D’Amato, two experienced judges, gave the fight to Sandhagen with scores of 49-46 and 50-45 respectively. On the other hand, Texas local Ojeda had a different opinion – he voted in favor of Vera with his score of 48-47.
Sandhagen said that he did the things he should have done during his fight against Marlon. He knew that if he kept his distance from Marlon, it would be hard for him to hit him because Marlon wasn’t good at closing distances. He felt like his fight was near-perfect when it came to challenging this type of opponent. Sandhagen also already has an idea which fighter he will take on in his next battle.
After his fight, a 30-year old fighter noticed Merab Dvalishvili watching cageside. Merab recently beat Petr Yan in a major fight and now the other fighter wants to challenge him.
Sandhagen believes that Merab is the best person in his team and he wants to challenge himself by fighting opponents with different styles. He doesn’t want to take action to avoid tasks, rather he wishes to encourage more people. To pass through higher ranks of his sport and hold onto the title, Sandhagen needs experience which he can gain by taking up challenging tasks like facing Merab, who has a different style of fighting.
The person I’m training with is really good, and it’ll make me work super hard to get better. If I can beat him, I know that I’m ready to fight for the championship title. People have to be honest when they ask for things like this; he’s won nine fights in a row, so why should I get a title before even him? This isn’t how things are done in MMA.
Sandhagen mentioned that he might need an operation on his elbow soon, but he is getting married in September, so he hopes to fight again before that. Dvalishvili obviously felt excited about the callout. Sandhagen also clarified why he changed his mind and called out Dvalishvili instead of Sean O’Malley which was his original plan.
I had a change of heart when I watched Merab fight last week. He beat Yan up and he won – even better than the close fight that O’Malley and Yan had! In my opinion, Merab should get the title shot more than O’Malley and if UFC still chooses O’Malley for the title, then I want to fight against the next best guy – even though I think Merab is actually the best.
