I’d like to start by offering my sincerest apologies to Cory Sandhagen. I was one of many who looked past the 28-year-old bantamweight on Saturday night, when he took to the Octagon for his first-ever main event fight against hard-hitting top contender Marlon Moraes.
It wasn’t any real insult to Sandhagen, a very skilled and technical young fighter who has elevated himself to the upper crust at 135 in a little over two years. It was more of a compliment to Moraes, an absolute badass with plenty of big-fight experience and one of the sweetest highlight reels in the division.
As I wrote before the fight, I expected it to stay on the feet, and it did. But in my mind, I figured that if Sandhagen had a chance to win, it would probably be by decision: he has much less pop than Moraes and risks an early KO, but if he could withstand the first couple rounds, he had a good chance of outlasting him. Moraes has historically been a fast starter who can fade late, but if a Moraes fight is ending early, it’s probably because the Brazilian removed a man from consciousness.
But then Sandhagen did this:
Holy smokes! It was a lovely tribute to man-with-buzzsaw-legs Edson Barboza, who had just finished off a very impressive unanimous decision win over Makwan Amirkhani minutes before, that Sandhagen would recreate the greatest moment of Barboza’s career by WHEEL KICKING A GUY’S HEAD OFF. It stands alone as easily the biggest win of Sandhagen’s career, and it should have made him an instant star – unfortunately, Joaquin Buckley had to go and hit the most absurd KO in the history of mixed martial arts earlier that night.
Sandhagen’s moment of brilliance was overshadowed, but it shouldn’t be forgotten. Nor should the impressive performance he submitted in the six minutes leading up to that amazing kick. Sandhagen kept the powerful Moraes at bay with his length, movement and kicking game, slipping Moraes’ most dangerous shots and landing some slick ones of his own. Sandhagen looked like the matador on Saturday, and I have little doubt that had he not hit that fantastic kick, he would have stayed in control throughout.
Sandhagen looked great, and it was the best possible news for Aljamain Sterling. The grappling whiz dominated Sandhagen in 88 seconds back in June, and Sandhagen’s demolition of Moraes means there’s even less chance he could get screwed out of his well-deserved title shot at Siberian savage Petr Yan.
UFC president Dana White stated in August that Sterling will be Yan’s next challenger, but he didn’t portray it in absolute terms. Considering the fight hasn’t yet been signed, and the history of weird skullduggery that has surrounded the UFC bantamweight title, it seemed eminently possible that Moraes – who was officially the division’s No. 1 contender according to the UFC rankings – could have jumped Sterling with a convincing win over Sandhagen, especially considering Moraes explosively KO’d Sterling in 2017.
That possibility went out the window when Sandhagen knocked out Moraes – not even White could justify having Sandhagen jump Sterling in line so soon after the “Funk Master” choked him out in the first round. So Sterling it is, or at least, it should be.
What’s more interesting is what happens after the Yan-Sterling fight. Moraes, who was absolutely robbed of a title fight with Yan when Henry Cejudo vacated the belt in May, stood as the obvious next man up had he beaten Sandhagen. But the KO loss leaves Moraes now three fights since his last convincing win – he lost to Cejudo and now Sandhagen, and although he was officially a split decision winner against Jose Aldo last December, the fight was extremely close.
Aldo is out as well, having eaten a comprehensive beatdown from Yan in their title fight earlier this year. Veteran contenders like Raphael Assuncao and Jimmie Rivera have eaten too many losses to the division’s best in recent years, and the great Dominick Cruz, if he ever fights again, is also probably cooked.
Former champion Cody Garbrandt is another interesting case. Garbrandt snapped a three-fight losing streak with a highlight-reel KO of Assuncao in June, but he appears to have his sights set on Deiveson Figueiredo and the flyweight championship. Garbrandt was booked for a shot at the 125-pound title next month, but had to pull out with a torn bicep – while Figueiredo will fight Alex Perez instead, Garbrandt has said that regardless, his next fight will be for the flyweight belt, meaning that he could be tied up at 125 pounds for the foreseeable future.
That means that the landscape could be wide open for everyone else. Despite his dominant loss to Sterling, Sandhagen now appears just one win away from the next title shot, even if Sterling is champion. A title eliminator bout with two-time champion T.J. Dillashaw may be in the offing. Dillashaw is currently serving a two-year PED suspension after testing positive for EPO – the shit that Lance Armstrong used – after his knockout loss to Cejudo in a title-versus-title fight early last year.
He’ll be eligible to fight again in January, which could be perfect timing to set up something with Sandhagen. Even though Dillashaw is a dirty cheater, he never lost his bantamweight title in the ring, and you can imagine that the UFC would be eager to give him another chance. Still, we have no idea what Dillashaw will look like off the juice (hopefully) and after a two-year layoff.
So while Sandhagen or Dillashaw may be next after Sterling, there’s still a lot that can change and plenty of other faces who could emerge. Someone like Moraes, even after eating that highlight-reel knockout, could reinsert his name into consideration relatively quickly. Or how about someone like Frankie Edgar, the former lightweight champ, who’s trying to become the first UFC fighter ever to challenge for titles in three different weight classes and looked impressive in a split decision win over Pedro Munhoz in August? He might be closer than you think. So too could be up-and-comers like Merab Dvalishvili or Rob Font, who may just find a way to skip through the rubble at 135. Hell, how about Marlon Vera, who put a crashing halt to the Sean O’Malley hype train in August, making himself a name in the process?
Sandhagen’s dominant performance against Moraes, and the preponderance of older guys who have lost a bunch near the top of the rankings, has unlocked things for a whole bunch of other guys to rise quickly at bantamweight. For me, this is when it gets the most fun. Let’s see where all this goes.
The Big Fight 