Cory Sandhagen criticized Marlon Vera‘s performance in his recent UFC bantamweight title defense against O’Malley, stating that Vera was undeserving of the title shot and performed poorly in the fight.
Cory Sandhagen didn’t mince words about Marlon Vera. He had a lot to say, and none of it was particularly kind.
Just this past weekend, we saw Sandhagen successfully defend his UFC bantamweight title. He dominated “Chito” Vera for a solid 25 minutes at UFC 299. Now, many people thought Vera got the title shot because of his beef with O’Malley, not because he was the best contender. So, the one-sided nature of the fight wasn’t exactly a surprise.
Sandhagen was pretty blunt when he talked about the fight on his YouTube channel. “Chito had no business being in the cage with O’Malley,” he said. Ouch. He praised O’Malley’s performance, even though he described it as fighting “like a homeless-looking Chito.”
He tried not to rag on Chito too much, but he didn’t hold back. The fight frustrated him. It was uncompetitive, and he felt like a fool for thinking Chito would do better. He was also annoyed that Chito got the opportunity in the first place. “I don’t know why I bought into the Chito hype. That was really stupid of me,” he admitted.
Sandhagen has his own history with Vera. He dominated the Ecuadorian over five rounds just a year ago. In his breakdown, he compared O’Malley’s strategy to his own approach to stifle Vera’s offense.
“O’Malley won almost the same kind of way I beat Chito, except he hit Chito a lot harder and a lot more,” Sandhagen said. He praised O’Malley for keeping it dynamic and not giving Vera the same look too many times.
He went into more detail about O’Malley’s tactics in the fight. He also addressed the bantamweight title picture and O’Malley’s call for a champ vs. champ fight against featherweight champion Ilia Topuria after UFC 299.
“Good on O’Malley,” Sandhagen said. He congratulated the champ, but he’s not sure who O’Malley will fight next. He hopes O’Malley won’t leave the division to go for a double-champ status. “I think that’s kind of whack right now. But we’ll see what the UFC decides,” he added.
As for O’Malley’s next opponent, it probably won’t be Sandhagen. He seems to have his sights set on a fight with rising contender Umar Nurmagomedov.