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Cory Sandhagen displayed arguably his greatest MMA performance against Marlon Vera at UFC on ESPN 43. 'The Sandman' dominated exchanges for the majority of the fight and won at least four rounds out of five in the eyes of many who watched it.
However, when Bruce Buffer read the scorecards and announced that Joel Ojeda had scored the fight 48-47 in favor of 'Chito', surprise washed over both Sandhagen and those who watched.
The mystery surrounding Ojeda's decision to award Vera the victory has remained unclear, until now.
Cory Sandhagen appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience last week and recapped his incredible performance. The podcast host expressed his disbelief that an MMA judge, who should be an expert on the sport, could have watched Marlon Vera vs. Sandhagen and awarded 'Chito' the victory.
Sandhagen then shared details of an incident he had with Joel Ojeda several years ago, when Ojeda officiated a fight that one of Sandhagen's teammates competed in. He said this:
"That guy was [refereeing] a fight of my guy like four years ago. My guy was in a rear-naked choke, but it wasn't sunken in... We were yelling at [the referee] like, 'Don't stop it, don't stop it.' The guy stops it, and then I'm like, 'Hey man, you really screwed that up.' And maybe I didn't say it that [nicely], but that same ref was the judge that scored it for Chito. So I don't think he liked me much, maybe... I only realized this a few days ago when I looked up what the guy looked like. I was like, 'That's the guy that I kind of b*****d out for f***ing up four years ago.'"
Watch the full video below from 58:15:
Cory Sandhagen explains why he wants to fight Merab Dvalishvili over Sean O'Malley
Cory Sandhagen surprised many fans following his win over Marlon Vera when he called out Merab Dvalishvili, arguably the division's toughest matchup for a striker like Sandhagen.
Dvalishvili has a relentless wrestling-based style and often grinds his opponents into a pulp through sheer pressure. But 'The Sandman' refused to shy away from a challenge and issued a callout to the No.1-ranked bantamweight.
Cory Sandhagen recently appeared on Food Truck Diaries, hosted by former UFC fighter Brendan Schaub. 'The Sandman' further explained why he would rather fight Dvalishvili than someone like Sean O'Malley, who is one of the biggest names in the sport:
"One think that I've been able to do fairly well in my career is like, think a couple of years ahead. I don't want to just attack the more popular shiny toy and have that be the fight. Me and Sean will fight one day. That's definitely [happening] probably in the next year or two. We will definitely fight so that fight will happen when it happens. But for me, I want to fight these really tough wrestlers before I get the belt."
Watch the video below:
