Sean O’Malley was impressed with Cory Sandhagen’s performance at UFC San Antonio.
In the main event of UFC San Antonio, Sandhagen extended his win streak to two with a decision win over Vera, in a rather one-sided fight, despite one judge scoring it for Vera.
Although O’Malley knew Sadhagen was a tough out, he said the performance was better than he thought in large part due to his wrestling.
Sean O’Malley on Cary Sandhagen
“I think Cory just outclassed him,” Sean O’Malley said on his TimboSugarShow podcast (h/t MMAFighting). “I do think the big cage — it’s like if you’re playing a basketball game and you’re like, ‘Okay, let’s only play half-court.’ That’s pretty much the difference between the big cage and the small cage. It’s 40 percent bigger, so it’s like a different playing ground that you’re playing with.”
“I think it would have favored ‘Chito’ a little more in the small cage. I don’t think anything was wrong with ‘Chito,’ I think Cory’s that f*****g good, and that style beats ‘Chito.’ He’s not very fast, he’s f*****g super good, super durable, well rounded everywhere. Cory was focused for 25 minutes and did what he needed to do. Wrestled more than I thought he would.”
In the fight at UFC San Antonio, Cory Sandhagen showed he can mix in his wrestling to win fights, but Sean O’Malley also says some blame has to go to Marlon Vera for his performance.
O’Malley was surprised that Vera wasn’t able to get up once Sandhagen got him down. As well, ‘Suga’ thinks Vera’s slow starts are a problem for him and did cost him here.
“I was super surprised at the lack of skills that — I don’t think he’s lacking those skills, but he wasn’t using them,” Sean O’Malley said of Chito Vera. “He just laid on his back. Cory’s not like a Merab [Dvalishvili] who just gets on top and has this crazy pressure where you can’t get the f—k up. Maybe. I haven’t felt that. But ‘Chito’ looked like he was just giving up that position.”
“I don’t know if he was like, ‘I’m gonna try to get Cory tired.’ Which is not a f*****g good game plan. Maybe it worked against a couple guys, but that can’t be your game plan, ‘I’m gonna go in there, lose these two rounds then try to win it in the last three.’ Fights you get a couple times a year. You gotta show up. You gotta f*****g show up on that night. That’s the most important thing.”
