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#2. Cory Sandhagen vs. Marlon Moraes – UFC Fight Island 5
Whenever a fighter takes the first loss of their UFC career, it’s safe to question exactly how they’ll look in their next trip to the octagon. After falling to Aljamain Sterling, the UFC hardly handed Cory Sandhagen a softball for his next fight.
Sandhagen was matched with Marlon Moraes – a fighter with wins over the likes of Sterling, Jimmie Rivera and Jose Aldo. His only loss since 2017 had come to Henry Cejudo. Moraes could also boast one of the most dangerous striking games in the UFC bantamweight division.
The pressure was also on Sandhagen as the fight was scheduled as the main event of UFC Fight Island 5 – his first headline bout in the UFC.
But if fans expected ‘The Sandman’ to struggle in the aftermath of his first UFC loss, they were sorely mistaken. In a wild first round, Moraes came out aggressively – but Sandhagen matched his aggression, and the two men exchanged heavy strikes, with ‘The Sandman’ absorbing plenty of punishment.
The second round went perfectly for him. Just moments into the stanza, Sandhagen landed a head kick that he immediately told his corner had broken Moraes’ orbital bone. Incredibly, he followed that blow with a ridiculous spinning wheel kick, knocking the Brazilian silly and ending the fight.
The knockout was one of the most outstanding of 2020 and stands as one of the only spinning kick finishes in UFC history. This was absolute proof that not only had Sandhagen bounced back from his loss to Sterling, but he was probably even better for it.
#1. Cory Sandhagen vs. Frankie Edgar – UFC Vegas 18
In most circumstances, a win like Cory Sandhagen produced over Marlon Moraes would have been enough to net a fighter a shot at the UFC title. However, with plenty of controversy surrounding the UFC bantamweight title thanks to the contentious clash between Petr Yan and Aljamain Sterling, a title shot wasn’t possible for ‘The Sandman.’
Instead, at UFC Vegas 18, the promotion matched him with another wickedly formidable opponent in the form of Frankie Edgar.
‘The Answer’ didn’t look as good as he’d done in his heyday as UFC lightweight champion, but he was still coming off a bantamweight debut win over Pedro Munhoz and looked like a difficult match for Cory Sandhagen.
But clearly, nobody had handed ‘The Sandman’ the memo that suggested he was in for a tricky night. Just 28 seconds into the first round, the fight was over, and Edgar was left unconscious on the octagon floor.
Sandhagen landed a ridiculous flying knee directly to the head of the former UFC lightweight champion, knocking him senseless. In fact, the way Edgar fell to the ground was a truly scary moment that made fans worried for his immediate future.
Edgar had been stopped twice before this, but never in this fashion and never quite so violently. The win was not only the most memorable knockout of Cory Sandhagen’s UFC career, but it might’ve been the greatest knockout in UFC bantamweight history, too.
