Cory Sandhagen, Dana White React to Split Decision in UFC on ESPN 43 Main Event

The UFC on ESPN 43 main event was largely devoid of drama — at least until the final scorecards were announced.

Cory Sandhagen authored one of the most complete performances of his career to date, using movement, clever striking and timely takedowns to confound Marlon Vera for the better part of 25 minutes at the AT&T Center in San Antonio on Saturday night. While the vast majority of observers thought the Elevation Fight Team export won four or five rounds, cageside judge Joel Ojeda submitted a dissenting 48-47 tally in favor of Vera. That led to a little bit more tension than expected during the final verdict.

“I think I do a pretty good job of sometimes keeping real good track of the volume, the damage, and the takedowns — and I thought that I was doing that almost the entire fight,” Sandhagen said during Saturday’s post-fight press conference.

“I thought that I was winning most of those rounds. Maybe the third, I was like, ‘Eh, you know, that was maybe a little bit close,’ but I thought that I was bagging the other ones. Definitely knew that I had the first two. So yeah, [the split decision was] confusing, but that’s the sport of MMA. Until the rules get fixed, it’s just going to keep happening. If they would’ve scored one of those first two [rounds] for him, that would’ve been a real riot.”

UFC president Dana White had an even stronger reaction to the split decision.

“I was literally coming out of the bathroom and I was like, ‘What the f—k?’” White said. “Were you surprised? It could have been 5-0, it could have been [4-1], but split? Wow, that’s pretty scary.”

Ultimately, Sandhagen got the victory that he deserved. In doing so, he neutralized the dangerous power of Vera, an opponent who entered the bout on a four-fight winning streak. Sandhagen admitted that he had a specific game plan to limit what Vera does best.

“I think I did exactly what I have to do. When you fight these top guys, especially when they’re knockout artists kind of like Marlon is, you just have to fight them in a certain way,” he said. “Marlon doesn’t close distance very well, so I knew as long as I wasn’t closing the distance for him, he was going to have a really hard time hitting me. And I think that I fought almost a perfect fight for fighting that type of opponent.”

Sandhagen, who previously came up short in a bid for interim bantamweight gold against Petr Yan at UFC 267, remains firmly entrenched among the top contenders in the division. Questionable split decision aside, that is undeniable.

“Yeah, we there’s no doubt about it,” White said. “He looked really good tonight and, obviously, he beat the No. 3 guy in the world. That wasn’t a split decision. Whoever scored that fight a split decision should be — I don’t even know, I’m not even going to go there. He absolutely dominated tonight and put himself in a really good position.”