Bantumweight Math

Courtesy of Getty Images and Josh Hedges

On Saturday night in San Antonio, Texas, Cory Sandhagen shocked the MMA community by defeating Marlon “Chito” Vera in a five-round fight that made it through the distance. Sandhagen poured on the combinations and mixed his wrestling early in the battle against a slow-starting Chito. Sandhagen landed four takedowns in significant spots of the fight, which secured the win. Throughout the fight, Chito seemed off with his timing when trying to land punches. Sandhagen avoided most of these blows with his footwork, but got caught a few times with cuts and bruises to show for it. Most of the blood stemmed from Chito’s slicing elbows that damaged the top of Sandhagen’s head later in the fight. 

After the fight, Chito addressed the crowd who was in heavy favor of Chito, and told them that he had no excuses and that next fight he would be better and perform like the old Chito Vera we have come to love. After winning, Cory Sandhagen called out Merab Dvalishvili who is currently ranked number one in the Bantamweight division. He told the audience that Merab poses a great challenge, and he would like to take on that challenge. Unfortunately, this fight knocked Chito out of championship contention, making “Suga” Sean O’ Malley the number one contender after the Sterling and Cejudo fight.