Another fight weekend is here, baby, and we love to see it. This weekend’s MMA slate only has one big offering on it: a UFC show on Saturday night, anchored by one heck of a bantamweight main event. The big-name fight alone is worth tuning in for, but violence is almost always worth beholding.
So, as usual, here’s a look at the three fights on Saturday’s show I’ll be watching closest:
Cory Sandhagen vs. T.J. Dillashaw
This weekend’s UFC show has lost several of its best fights in the last couple weeks, with a very interesting Shamil Abdurakhimov–Chris Daukaus heavyweight bout falling through due to COVID, and the return of Aspen Ladd being canceled due to an injury this week to opponent Macy Chiasson. But thank God the main event is still good to go – we already had T.J. Dillashaw’s long-awaited return postponed once, and I don’t think I could have handled it if we lost it again.
It’s been two and a half years since we last saw Dillashaw, one of the great bantamweights of all time, in the cage – a 32-second flyweight title loss to Henry Cejudo in Jan. 2019. At the time, he was still the reigning 135-pound champion. In some people’s eyes, he still is the champion, just uncrowned. His return is a massive, massive development for the bantamweight division.
Dillashaw is the legend who came from out of nowhere. The runner-up on The Ultimate Fighter 14, Dillashaw was fighting guys like Mike Easton and Issei Tamura when he was suddenly tapped as an injury replacement for a title shot against Renan Barao in May 2014. Dillashaw was considered a very promising young talent, but not there yet – Barao was on an epic 33-fight unbeaten streak, and was seen as one of the bet pound-for-pound fighters in the world. That night, however, it was Dillashaw who put an incredible beating on the champion, outclassing him in every way en route to a fifth-round stoppage.
It was one of the most magnificent and stunning performances in UFC history, and Dillashaw spent the next five years proving it wasn’t a fluke. He held the bantamweight title until 2016, when he was outfoxed by the great Dominick Cruz, but regained the belt the next year when he knocked out Cody Garbrandt in a thrilling back-and-forth fight. The second time, he didn’t lose it in the cage – he lost it to USADA, when he was busted for using EPO after his loss to Cejudo and suspended for two years.
The fact that Dillashaw’s last fight was a quick loss – albeit to one of the most remarkable talents in MMA history – and the fact that he’s now seen as a drug cheat, have soiled him in the eyes of a large amount of fans. He’s also been out for two and a half years, a very significant layoff that could have a strong effect on his hopes against Sandhagen. But why you would count out Dillashaw is beyond me – the man has always been really goddamn dangerous. He has knockout power and is equally comfortable leading or countering, has great kicks, moves in a unique and difficult-to-read way, and has a strong wrestling background that he employs well. Cejudo and Garbrandt have proven that you can catch him, but offensively, he’s a thing of beauty to watch.
I don’t think that Cory Sandhagen has the same kind of pure firepower in his fists, but he makes up for it. One of the breakout stars of the last several months, Sandhagen comes in off two straight Knockout of the Year contenders, a wheel kick KO of Marlon Moraes in October and a 28-second flying knee that knocked former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar stiff.
Sandhagen’s last two fights have garnered him a reputation as an explosive finisher that he didn’t have before, but in order to beat Dillashaw, he’ll have to do what we already knew he did well. Super tall and long for 135 at 5-foot-11 with a 70-inch reach, Sandhagen has an extremely well-developed and cerebral switch-hitting striking game – he keeps a strong pace, attacks every target he can, and everything he does is well-considered. Even if he isn’t going to be scoring highlight knockouts every time out, he’s one of the best bantamweights around.
We could be in for one hell of a stand-up battle, then, with the effectiveness of Dillashaw’s wrestling game perhaps being a deciding factor. There’s also the added wrinkle of Dillashaw and Sandhagen formerly having been training partners in Colorado – the familiarity could always make things interesting. Not that this one isn’t good enough on its own. The winner of this fight will almost undoubtedly get the next opportunity at the world title, once the Aljamain Sterling–Petr Yan boondoggle is sorted out. Either one of these guys would be an excellent choice.
The rest of the card is looking pretty thin – we seemingly say that about every UFC card these days – but there are a few low-key bangers scattered about. How about a couple young, talented bantamweights who both have finished all their UFC wins? Sounds good to me, too.
27-year-old Adrian Yanez has started to build hype as one of the top young 135ers in the world – a lot of it, I think, is because he looks like Jorge Masvidal – and has scored explosive stoppages in all three of his appearances inside the Octagon, counting his win on the Contender Series last August. He head-kicked an outmatched Victor Rodriguez in his UFC debut two months later, and in March, he slept former Combate Americas champ Gustavo Lopez with a counter right from hell:
Yanez seems to have his identity on the feet carved out already, early in his career: he’s a quick, powerful counter striker, who sits on big right hands and one-twos and unleashes them when his opponents enter range. It worked beautifully against Lopez, who wanted to come in and swing big. But we haven’t seen it work against someone actually established at the UFC level – Costa will be the closest he’s gotten so far.
After losing his UFC debut against Brandon Davis – in which was only his fifth professional fight – Costa left his native Massachusetts behind to train at American Top Team and Sanford MMA in Florida this past year, two of the best camps in the sport. Now, he’s starting to show the talent that got him to the show so early.
Costa’s striking style is aggressive, wild and crowd-pleasing, and it’s resulting in highlights. In Oct. 2019, Costa scorched Boston Salmon with a series of laser-targeted right hands in front of a roaring hometown crowd in Boston – that’s right, the guy named Boston wasn’t actually the guy from Boston – and in his last fight he took Journey Newson completely off his feet with a head kick in 41 seconds.
Costa loves to lead the dance and go crazy, while Yanez is patient and waits for his opening. He should have plenty – the question will be whether Costa’s freewheeling pace overwhelms him or not. I can’t wait to find out the answer! Both of these guys look like very exciting young talents, each searching for a springboard. I think this one will deliver.
Punahele Soriano vs. Brendan Allen
We’ve got two more young guys who bring the goddamn bacon here on the undercard too. Punahele Soriano and Brendan Allen are both in their 20s, and out of six combined UFC wins between them, only one went to decision. It looks like a terrific striker vs. grappler matchup, and another fight that has a high probability of ending early.
Let’s start with Soriano, who’s started to catch some notoriety just two fights into his UFC career. Soriano is a 28-year-old middleweight out of Oahu who’s started his Octagon run explosively. He already seems to have his thing: he punches really, really fucking hard. I’m not certain his style is particularly sustainable at the top level, but it’s sure going to be damn entertaining: he knows he has hammer power in his hands and he loads up big, throwing everything he has into killshots that come from wild angles.
He’s a southpaw, and that left is an especially deadly weapon: he debuted with a one-hitter quitter of a left hook that knocked Oskar Piechota unconscious in Dec. 2019, and he absolutely massacred Dusko Todorovic with the left in January. This guy is a headhunter, and he apparently hates Europeans:
That may be a good thing for Brendan Allen, who is both not European – he’s actually from South Carolina – and not a striker, meaning that he has a way to win this fight that doesn’t require him to face Soriano’s cinderblock hands. In fact, he’s going to have to count on it. Allen fell victim to a Sean Strickland flat-footed boxing clinic in November, his first defeat in the UFC. He didn’t belong on the feet with a guy like Strickland, and paradoxically didn’t try to get the fight to the ground. At that point, the result became academic.
Before that point, however, Allen was starting to bubble under as one of the top young middleweights in the game. Allen started off on a 3-0 run that included a submission win over pre-hype Kevin Holland, and his success turned heads considering his youth. He got back to basics after the Strickland loss, returning to the cage in April to finish Karl Roberson with an ankle lock.
It was exactly what you wanted to see. Allen may not be a ton on the feet, but he’s a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt who just needs to do enough to be able to punch his way into the clinch and assert his grappling game. Fighters are often better when they stick to what they’re good at! Getting into the clinch may mean braving Soriano’s onslaught, but he’ll be all the better for it.
Two young fighters with offsetting styles and finishing talent. I’m here for that.
The Big Fight 