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UFC Fight Island 5 marked an incredible night of KO and TKO finishes and the event was capped off with a beautiful spinning heel kick finish from bantamweight sensation Cory Sandhagen. Squaring across the Octagon against the ever-dangerous Marlon Moraes, The Sandman did the unthinkable in Round #2 and finished-off the Brazilian inside the first minute.
In his post-fight Octagon interview, Cory Sandhagen laid out his plans to fight either TJ Dillashaw or Frankie Edgar next. But he also acknowledged the fact that Aljamain Sterling should receive the next shot at the UFC Bantamweight Championship.
Cory Sandhagen believes Aljamain Sterling should get the next title shot
Prior to tonight's UFC Fight Island 5 main event, the scenario at the top of the UFC Bantamweight Division was still a bit unclear, with Marlon Moraes possibly still in contention of a title shot. However, that conversation has been put to bed, at least for a while, after Cory Sandhagen himself put Moraes away.
With Aljamain Sterling being the favorite to challenge next for Petr Yan's bantamweight strap, the man who Sterling submitted in his last fight also believes the same. While speaking to Dan Hardy in his post-fight interview, Cory Sandhagen said:
"The only other guys that have an argument is TJ when he gets back in January and Frankie. All the respect to both of those guys but I want that belt, those are the only two guys ahead of me and then I want the winner of Yan and Sterling."
In his post-fight press conference, however, Cory Sandhagen did claim that he will be willing to keep himself ready to step in for a title fight if he is needed at the very last minute.
"Absolutely. Honestly, I've been doing that for like a year or two now, where it's like 'Okay, this is a big fight coming up, I don't have a fight coming up. I'm gonna keep my weight low and stay ready'. I've been doing that in camp, I've been doing that almost the whole time I've been in the UFC. But yeah, definitely gonna do that, of course now, because I think I'm probably the #1 guy, if one of those guys gets hurt but I would feel really bad if they did me and Yan and they did that to Sterling."
As things stand, Aljamain Sterling remains the favorite to challenge for the UFC Bantamweight Championship and it remains to be seen when the promotion finally fixes a date between him and champion Petr Yan.
