Cory Sandhagen thinks he may have given Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera a little too much hype ahead of the Ecuadorian’s bantamweight title tilt with Sean O’Malley.
It was a long 25 minutes for ‘Chito’ at UFC 299. The first-time title challenger was battered through five rounds, being outstruck by a massive margin of 232 to 89 en route to a landslide unanimous decision loss.
Initially humble in his defeat, Vera has since made some rather preposterous claims, though everyone, including former opponent Cory Sandhagen, seems to be in agreement that ‘Chito’ simply didn’t deliver in the long-awaited rematch.
“Chito obviously had no business being in the cage with O’Malley,” Sandhagen said on his YouTube channel. “Really tough showing by Chito. Awesome performance by O’Malley. You’ve got to give the guy all the credit in the world even though he was fighting like a homeless-looking Chito.
“I’m going to try to spend this whole breakdown not sh*tting on Chito the whole time, but it’s probably going to turn into me sh*tting on Chito the whole time. That fight really frustrated me because it was one, unbelievably uncompetitive. Two, I feel like a dummy for thinking Chito was going to do better because that’s almost literally what all of his fights look like unless he gets some type of knockout.
“And three, I just think it’s not that cool that Chito even got that opportunity to begin with, because like I said, that’s what we all should have seen coming. I don’t know why I bought into the Chito hype. That was really stupid of me” (h/t MMA Mania).
Cory Sandhagen Circling a shot at the bantamweight title
Vera’s title shot came with a bit of controversy as multiple fighters, including Merab Dvalishvili and Sandhagen himself were deemed to be far more deserving. ‘The Machine’ appears to be next in line, but ‘Sandman’ likely won’t be too far behind as he currently sits at No. 3 in the divisional rankings.
Sandhagen has won three straight, besting Song Yadong, Marlon Vera, and Rob Font. Though no official announcements have been made, ‘Sandman’ has accepted an International Fight Week clash with rising contender Umar Nurmagomedov with the bout serving as a potential title eliminator.
“O’Malley won almost the same kind of way I beat Chito, except he hit Chito a lot harder and he hit Chito a lot more,” Sandhagen said. “So good on him for doing that. Instead of overwhelming Chito with [wrestling] shots and stuff like that, he started overwhelming Chito with a ton of feints. Didn’t give him the same look every single time. … O’Malley kept it super dynamic the entire time, didn’t give him the same look too many times in a row, and that’s why he won.”