UFC Nashville - Main event snoozefest
Cory Sandhagen picked up a win against Rob Font at UFC Nashville, while Tatiana Suarez made easy work of former champion Jessica Andrade.
‘The Sandman’ put on a dominant performance when he beat Rob Font by a unanimous 50-45 decision, but sadly it will probably be overshadowed by the low entertainment value of the fight. Sandhagen mostly utilised his grappling to get the job done, and while he was very successful with it, the fight ended up being quite a dull affair where Sandhagen ultimately racked up nearly 20 minutes of ground control time. Grappling in itself isn’t a negative thing, but when the grappling is used for control and holding a position more so than to do damage, that’s when fans usually get frustrated. With that being said though, I somewhat struggle to blame Sandhagen for his performance. He had nearly a full training camp preparing for Umar Nurmagomedov so grappling was certainly a big focus, whether it was defensive or offensive. He did what he had to do in order to win, but only landing 34 significant strikes across 25 minutes (even though he kept Font to a measly 9) while laying on top of your opponent for close to 80% of the time isn’t exactly a statement win in such a stacked division.
Now we will have to see what happens in Boston in two weeks time, but no matter if Sterling wins or loses to Sean O’Malley wins I am pretty certain that Merab Dvalishvili will be fighting for the title next. So best case for Sandhagen is that Sterling wins, vacates the belt before moving to 145lbs, and Sandhagen can step in against Merab for the vacant title. I have no doubt that Cory Sandhagen is champion calibre, but this just wasn’t the most inspiring victory.
Speaking of inspiring, Tatiana Suarez is absolutely for real. Most fans probably knew this already, but a dominant win over a veteran like Jessica Andrade just proved exactly how good she is. A four year layoff like she had could very easily derail a career, especially in such a tough sport like MMA, but Suarez now has two second round submission wins this year, and she looks like she hasn’t missed a step. She won the first round, where she both outstruck Andrade and also ragdolled her at times. While Suarez is mostly known for her incredible wrestling, she looked very comfortable on the feet against a dangerous power puncher like Andrade, so it’s clear that she is developing into a very complete fighter. As with Sandhagen, she will no doubt have her eyes set on UFC 292, where the strawweight title is on the line. That belt has been a bit of a hot potato recently, and Suarez will be looking to pick up gold after Zhang Weili and Amanda Lemos has fought in Boston.
Two contenders who with two very different performances. I believe both of them will compete for the belt in their respective divisions in the not to distant future, but it just shows how important it can be to have a performance that people will get excited by.