UFC San Antonio: Cory Sandhagen dominates Marlon Vera, wins split decision

Cory Sandhagen has been one of the elite bantamweights in the world for at least the last three years. On Saturday at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas, though, he took it to another level.

Sandhagen dominated Marlon Vera in every aspect of the game and ended the third-ranked bantamweight’s four-fight winning streak, winning a split decision Saturday in the main event of UFC San Antonio.

Two of the judges had it 50-45 and 49-46 for Sandhagen, while Joel Ojeda had one of the worst scorecards ever and had it 48-47 for Vera. Yahoo Sports had it 49-46 for Sandhagen.

Sandhagen was stunned when ring announcer Bruce Buffer read the card in favor of Vera. And even Vera knew he didn’t win.

Speaking in the cage to the crowd that cheered him on all night, Vera said, “I just couldn’t get it started. It’s OK. No excuses. "

Vera is normally a slow starter, but he never got untracked at any point on Saturday. Sandhagen mixed his game very well, using his wrestling and his kicks from range to keep Vera guessing.

Sandhagen conceded before the fight that Vera had better power than he did, but Vera wasn’t able to unleash his power shots that had moved him up to third in the rankings.

Even in the final two minutes of the final round, when it was clear that Vera could only win by finish, he wasn’t able to get going as Sandhagen fired kicks at him from range. Vera spent the final part of the round trying to fend off Sandhagen rather than to pull out a dramatic finish.

Vera had a bit of flurry in the final 20 seconds but it was far too late. As Vera was firing punches in the final five seconds, Sandhagen pointed his index finger at him in celebration as he moved out of distance.

Sandhagen noted that he wants to fight for the title, but it’s complicated. He was ranked fifth before the fight. Merab Dvalishvili routed Petr Yan two weeks ago and is No. 1, but is best friends with champion Aljamain Sterling. If Sterling defeats Henry Cejudo in May at UFC 288 when they meet, Dvalishvili said he won’t fight him.

But Sandhagen knows he’s going to get a big fight next regardless of what goes on. And though he won dominantly despite what Ojeda saw, Sandhagen wound up apologizing after.

“I’m sorry it wasn’t the war fight or a KO like people were expecting,” Sandhagen said. “The dude’s hard to hit and I’m hard to hit myself.”

Sandhagen outstruck Vera 106-44 in significant strikes and had over five minutes of control time. It was a masterclass by him no matter how you looked at it.