Marlon Vera will look to continue his hot streak in the UFC when he faces Cory Sandhagen in the bantamweight main event of a Fight Night at the AT&T Centre in San Antonio, Texas, on the morning of Sunday 26 March 2023.
Vera (20-7-1) has put together a four-fight win streak and climbed to No 4 in the division rankings, most recently knocking out Dominick Cruz in spectacular fashion in the fourth round of their main event fight in August of last year.
‘Chito’, who has also beaten Davey Grant, Frankie Edgar and Rob Font in his current winning run, is hoping for a title shot at some point in the not-too-distant future, but realises that he has to be patient.
“I don’t like to go and ask the UFC for s***, because think about it: Every day somebody calls and asks and says they want this, they want to negotiate, they want to renegotiate, I’m not like that,” the 30-year-old explained.
“I like to earn my f****** bread. I just put people out, work my ass off, and keep going. So I went back to [UFC Matchmaker] Sean Shelby and what I knew about this fight, he told me, ‘Really, my only opening right now is the February [the original slot for this fight, since shifted to March] main event.’ I was like, ‘Sounds pretty sexy.’”
Sandhagen (15-4), after two narrow losses to T.J. Dillashaw and Petr Yan, returned to winning form with a TKO of Song Yadong in September of last year.
The 30-year-old ‘Sandman’ has stated that Vera’s streak does not bother him: “I think the way that he’s been winning is not a reliable way to win,” noted the No 5 ranked bantamweight.
“When I think about some of the best fighters in the world or what I foresee myself trying to become, which is the best fighter in the world, it doesn’t involve a lot of unreliable winning. It involves strategically beating them in every moment and having just very reliable ways to win.
“Whether that be like takedowns, whether that be just being a better kickboxer, whether that be submissions – whatever that is, I don’t think that it can be ‘lose most of the fight and then catch the person in one of the later rounds’. I don’t think it’s going to work against me, and that’s kind of the way that I feel about his style.”
The rest of the main card features Holly Holm battling Yana Santos in a women’s bantamweight clash; Alex Caceres v Nate Landwehr in a featherweight fight; a middleweight match pitting American-Nigerian Chidi Njokuani against Albert Duraev; and Andrea Lee facing Maycee Barber in women’s flyweight opener.
UFC FIGHT NIGHT: VERA VS. SANDHAGEN
- Main event: Bantamweight: Marlon Vera v Cory Sandhagen
- Women’s bantamweight: Holly Holm v Yana Santos
- Featherweight: Alex Caceres v Nate Landwehr
- Middleweight: Chidi Njokuani v Albert Duraev
- Women’s flyweight: Andrea Lee v Maycee Barber