The UFC San Antonio headliner featured a bantamweight banger between No.3 ranked Marlon Vera and No.5 ranked Cory Sandhagen.
Vera (22-7-1 MMA) enters the bout in fine form, having won his last four straight bouts, two of those being highlight-reel knockouts over UFC veterans Frankie Edgar and Dominick Cruz. In that run, Vera also holds unanimous decisions over Davey Grant and Rob Font.
Meanwhile, Sandhagen comes into the fight with one win behind him, which came over Song Yadong in his one and only outing of 2022. Sandhagen was able to stop Song in the fourth round due to a doctor stoppage. Prior to the victory over Song, Sandhagen dropped two-straight bouts to TJ Dillashaw and Petr Yan.
The main event of the evening resulted in a complete shutout for Sandhagen over five rounds. Sandhagen was able to completely shut down the game of Vera and overwhelmed the Ecuadorian with his constant movement, switch of stances, and ability to mix in the wrestling with his strikes. Despite outclassing Vera over 25 minutes, one judge scored the fight the other way, but luckily for Sandhagen, the other two judges scored the fight correctly.
In his post-fight interview, Sandhagen took the opportunity to praise Merab Dvalishvili for his recent body of work inside the Octagon. Dvalishvili who was sat cage side for the UFC San Antonio main event recently defeated Petr Yan in Las Vegas. Sandhagen made it clear that Dvalishvili is the fight he wants next.
Official result: Cory Sandhagen Def. Marlon Vera via split decision (47-48, 50-45, 49-46)
UFC fighters, anaylsts, and coaches all reacted to the main event. See what they had to see below.
UFC Fighters React After Cory Sandhagen Defeats Marlon Vera
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
