T.J. Dillashaw Returns to Face Cory Sandhagen Atop May 8 UFC Fight Night

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The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s bantamweight division is as alive as it has ever been.

ESPN reported on Thursday night that T.J. Dillashaw (16-4) will be coming off his two-year suspension on May 8. There, he will take on surging contender Cory Sandhagen (14-2) in a possible bantamweight title eliminator match, as the main event for the evening’s UFC Fight Night foray. The event does not yet have a destination selected, as the promotion is still preparing for its April trip to Florida with a full crowd in attendance for UFC 261.

Dillashaw last competed in January 2019, when he tried to take the trip down to flyweight to become a two-division champion. Henry Cejudo turned him away in 32 seconds, thereby keeping Dillashaw’s career pattern of winning four fights only to lose the fifth intact. After the loss, Dillashaw surrendered his bantamweight throne when the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency detected irregularities in his test results that turned out to be recombinant human erythropoietin (EPO). The former bantamweight king won the crown in 2017 by knocking out bitter rival Cody Garbrandt, and then defended it in a rematch with Garbrandt the following year.

Barring his 88-second submission loss to current champ Aljamain Sterling in 2020, Sandhagen has looked nothing short of spectacular in his run up the 135-pound ladder. The Legacy Fighting Alliance talent burst on to the scene by rattling off five wins in just over a year and a half, which included victories over John Lineker and Raphael Assuncao. Falling short in his bout to Sterling, Sandhagen rebounded with sensational knockouts of Marlon Moraes and Frankie Edgar in the last five months. Of note, Sandhagen became one of a very small number of fighters to notch both spinning and flying knockouts in company history.

The UFC Fight Night event on May 22 has no current location, but it now has its headliner between Dillashaw and Sandhagen. Other key matchups on the card include a possible retirement match between Donald Cerrone and Diego Sanchez at welterweight, while Roxanne Modafferi meets once-beaten Taila Santos at flyweight.