Sean O’Malley has offered his thoughts on Cory Sandhagen vs. Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera.
‘The Sandman’ made it two wins in a row when he defeated the streaking Vera in the main event of UFC San Antonio. Sandhagen took home a split decision win despite largely dominating the contest.
‘Cory Just Outclassed Him’
Following the victory last weekend, Sandhagen moved to #3 in the bantamweight rankings, right behind a colorful-haired contender. O’Malley, whose longtime rival was Vera, would applaud Sandhagen on his success.
“I think Cory just outclassed him,” O’Malley said on his YouTube channel. “I do think the big cage [had an impact], it’s like if you’re playing a basketball game, you’re like, ‘well, let’s just play half court’. That’s pretty much the difference between the small cage and the big UFC cage. It’s 40% bigger, so it, it’s like a different playing ground you’re playing with. I think it would’ve favored Chito a little bit, a lot more in the smaller cage.”
‘I Don’t Think Anything Was Wrong With Chito’
After the loss snapped a four-fight win streak for Vera, many believe the Ecuadorian wasn’t his usual self at UFC San Antonio. However, ‘Suga’ doesn’t believe that was the case and instead thinks Sandhagen was just flat-out great on Saturday night.
“I don’t think anything was wrong with Chito,” O’Malley continued. “I think Cory’s that f*cking good and that style beats Chito. Chito’s not very fast. He’s fucking super good, super durable, well-rounded everywhere… Corey was focused for 25 minutes, did what he needed to do, wrestled more than I thought he would. What surprised me a lot was the first two rounds when Cory took Chito down, didn’t look like [Chito] was trying to get his guard back, didn’t really look like he was trying to risk control, get up.
“I was super surprised at the lack of skills that I don’t think he is lacking those skills, but he did. He wasn’t using them, he just laid on his back. I don’t think Corey’s some— he’s not like a Merab [Dvalishvili] who gets on top and he’s just got this crazy pressure, you can’t get the fuck up. Maybe, I mean, I haven’t felt that, but Chito looked like he was just giving up that position.”
O’Malley On Vera’s Tactics
O’Malley wasn’t a fan of Vera’s game-plan.
“I don’t know if he was like, ‘I’m gonna try to get Cory tired’, which is not a f*cking good game plan. Maybe it worked against a couple guys, but that can’t be your game plan: ‘I’m gonna go in there and lose these two rounds and then try to win in the last three'”.
A Division On Fire
The UFC Bantamweight division has looked phenomenal as of late. In March, two marquee main events would take place with Merab Dvalishvili dominating Petr Yan as well as Cory Sandhagen shutting out Chito Vera for the most part.
Sean O’Malley has something to take away from all of it.
“That was an inspirational performance,” O’Malley added. “I liked watching Merab, complete opposite style of Cory, go in there and do what he did to Petr for five, five [minute rounds] and then back to back weekends or whatever the f*ck it was, close enough, Cory goes and does that to Chito.
“The bantamweight division is on f*cking fire and there’s guys like Cory who do it all. There’s guys like Merab who wrestle heavy and it’s inspiring, being near the top to watch these guys f*cking do what they do.”
