Cory Sandhagen softened up Marlon Moraes in the first round then knocked him out with a spinning wheel kick at 1:03 in the second in the main event of UFC Fight Night at the Flash Forum in Abu Dhabi yesterday, October 11, Sunday.
Sandhagen broke Moraes’ orbital with a kick early in the second which Sandhagen loudly announced during the fight. Moving forward Sandhagen landed a beautiful spinning wheel kick that dropped Moraes to the canvas.
Sandhagen then pounced on the fallen Moraes and administered ground-and-pound before the referee waved him off to stop the fight.
The victory was swift and brutal. Sandhagen said it made up for his disappointing submission loss to Aljamain Sterling last June 6.
“That was a big one for me. It’s not about how you come back from wins. It’s how you come back from losses. I came back from one of the most embarrassing losses I’ve ever had. I was able to show up and take out Marlon Moraes who is a monster,” said Sandhagen in the post-fight interview where he showed up looking fresh and unmarked.
In the first round Sandhagen was on his toes and kept away from Moraes’ power shots. He switched freely from orthodox to southpaw chopping at Moraes’ legs and striking with his own punches from distance.
Sandhagen connected with a pair of kicks with his left leg which landed square on the right side of Moraes’ torso. He mixed up his kicks with punches and connected on Moraes head and face.
Sandhagen clearly was not going for a knockout blow early but contented himself with touching up Moraes with bruising blows to the head, body and legs. Sandhagen was composed, calculating and dominated the fight completely.
“I was locked in the entire time. Not only just tonight. I was locked in the entire trip. I didn’t let my head go flat. It’s real easy on these trips to get distracted. To get a little bit too restful. To get a little bit too relaxed. To run away from your fears a little bit. I didn’t do that this time. I was locked in the entire time,” said Sandhagen.
In the co-main event veteran Edson Barboza scored a unanimous decision win over Makwan Amirkhani at featherweight.
In other fights of the main card Marcin Tybura posted a unanimous decision victory over Ben Rothwell at heavyweight. In the other heavyweight bout Tom Aspinali posted a spectacular TKO victory over Alan Baudot. Ilia Topuria got a hard-earned unanimous decision victory over Youssef Zalal at featherweight.