The
Ultimate Fighting Championship returned to Nashville, featuring
two showdowns between contenders. In the main event, elite
bantamweight
Cory
Sandhagen clashed with superb striker
Rob Font in a
140-pound catchweight affair. Sandhagen's only three losses in the
UFC have occurred against world champions in
Aljamain
Sterling,
Petr Yan and
T.J.
Dillashaw, the last a controversial split decision. Against
everyone else, he has looked phenomenal. He rode a two-fight
winning streak coming into Nashville, having brutally dispatched
Yadong
Song in a fourth-round stoppage and then dominated
Marlon Vera
with striking and grappling alike for 25 minutes, one insane
scorecard for his opponent notwithstanding.
Rob
Font came into
UFC on ESPN 50 having lost two of his last three, dropping
clear five-round decisions to
Jose Aldo and
Marlon
Vera before recording a first-round knockout over top prospect
Adrian
Yanez, then undefeated in the UFC. It was a tremendous war for
the almost 3 minutes it lasted, with Font's wonderful technical
boxing triumphing. However, coupled with his previous losses and
Font's creeping age at 36, Sandhagen was a big favorite.
Sandhagen wasn't taking any chances, repeatedly taking down Font
and keeping him there, inflicting effective ground-and-pound. It
was the same strategy he had used against Vera, but this time, he
was able to do so for all five rounds instead of two. The crowd
didn't like it, but it was another dominant performance, with
Sandhagen taking the unanimous decision with 50-45 on all three
cards.
In the co-main event,
Tatiana
Suarez returned against former women's strawweight champion
Jessica
Andrade in a flyweight battle. Suarez looked like a can't miss
future queen at 115 pounds in the late 2010s herself, attaining a
perfect record of 8-0, including a devastating ground-and-pound
stoppage of former and then future strawweight champion
Carla
Esparza, and an easy first-round submission of current
flyweight queen
Alexa
Grasso, both in 2018. Unfortunately, Suarez had been plagued by
injuries, which resulted in her being gone from the cage for almost
4 years. She returned in February of this year with a triumphant
guillotine choke of
Montana
De La Rosa, putting the division on notice. However, Suarez
faced a big step up in Andrade, who had also challenged for the
flyweight crown as recently as 2021 against
Valentina
Shevchenko. Andrade had alternated fights between strawweight
and flyweight but was riding a two-fight losing streak, having been
tapped in the second stanza by sensational prospect
Erin
Blanchfield in February of this year and then shockingly
knocked out by
Xiaonan Yan
in just over 2 minutes at strawweight in May.
Suarez passed the test with flying colors. She spent some time
striking with Andrade, showing improvement thanks to an effective
kicking game. It wasn't long, however, before she changed levels
and easily took the Brazilian down. In the second stanza, she used
a beautiful transition to finish with a guillotine 1:31 into the
round, her second such finish in a row.
Here are several interesting fights that now suggest
themselves.
With
Merab
Dvalishvili refusing to face teammate Sterling for the title,
Sandhagen is the clear top contender at present. If he were to
rematch Sterling, it would be a fascinating contest, as Sandhagen's
grappling, especially his wrestling, has improved by leaps and
bounds since their initial meeting. It's unlikely Sterling would
get a quick submission again, forcing him to strike, where
Sandhagen may well have a significant advantage. If Sandhagen were
to face O'Malley, it could be a sensational striking duel, though
Sandhagen would also have a grappling advantage he can lean on. In
either case, it would be an outstanding fight for the UFC
bantamweight title, worthy of co-maining or main eventing a UFC
pay-per-view.
Font is 36 and clearly has a grappling weakness. However, he is
still an excellent striker, so it makes sense to put him against
another fantastic striker ranked similarly. This is where Song
comes in. In fact, Font and Song were originally scheduled to fight
on the UFC 292 card before Song withdrew. Font versus Song could be
one of the best “boxing” battles in UFC history, as both men excel
within that discipline. Can Font's world-class jab and outstanding
technique overcome Song's double-fisted power and crisp
combinations? This could easily be the fight of the night on any
card it appears on.
There is no immediate contender above Suarez for her to fight, with
Alexa
Grasso rematching
Valentina
Shevchenko for the title, top contender
Manon
Fiorot facing former strawweight queen
Rose
Namajunas, and Erin Blachfield battling
Taila
Santos. The next title challenger will likely either be the
winner of Fiorot-Namajunas or Blanchfield-Santos. Blanchfield and
Santos are both excellent grapplers, which could make for a
stalemate against Suarez. Thus, the other fight's loser makes more
sense, as Fiorot and Namajunas are primarily strikers. Suarez
facing either one will not only elevate the winner to a potential
title shot of their own, but be an exciting affair with a high
chance of a finish.