Iuri Alcantara gives credit to Cory Sandhagen for defeating him at UFC Lincoln.
Bantamweight Iuri Alcantara has nothing but praise for UFC Lincoln opponent, Cory Sandhagen. After securing a tight armbar in the first round of the bout, ‘Marajo’ was able to bend Sandhagen’s arm the wrong for a long time, which would have made many other fighters quit, but it was not enough this time around.
Once Sandhagen escaped the submission, he was able to break Alcantara’s nose with ground and pound, which ended up as a Sandhagen TKO victory. . After having surgery on his nose, Iuri told Combate that Cory deserves all the merit for the win.
“It was a really good fight,” Alcantara said. “I was ready to go after him and finish the fight if he gave me any opportunities. The only reason I didn’t finish him is that he never tapped. The armbar was perfectly locked in, I thought he was going to tap. Then I released it and tried bending his arm in a different direction, but, again, he didn’t tap. It’s his merit, I can’t take that away fro my opponent. He’s a tough guy who endured that hold and then made the fight go his way. He hit me with some ground and pound and it broke my nose in the first round. I couldn’t really breathe that well in the second round, because my nose was all crushed.”
The TKO loss puts Iuri Alcantara in a bad situation, with only one win in his last four fights. With losses to the likes of Sandhagen, Alejandro Perez and Brian Kelleher, Marajo’s sole win came in February 2018, when he defeated Joe Soto via TKO.