Official: Chito Vera vs. Cory Sandhagen on February 18 at a UFC Fight Night event | Other Sports | Sports

Marlon Chito Vera and Cory Sandhagen agreed to fight and the UFC has just formalized the contest. The fourth and fifth of ranking bantamweight will meet on February 18 in the framework of a UFC Fight Night event. The poster that the promotion has released does not detail the venue of the function, however, in the United States they anticipate that the billboard will take place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas (Nevada).

“On February 18th you already know what you will be doing… 5 between two of the most exciting fighters in bantamweight: @chitoveraUFC vs. @corysandhagen”, UFC published on its Twitter account in Spanish this Friday.

The announcement comes after ESPN MMA reported on Thursday that the Ecuadorian martial artist was awarded the Most Developed Fighter award at the 2022 MMA Awards for his performance this year within the Ultimate Fighting Championship roster.

Vera was looking for a third fight that would allow him to close 2022 as a title challenger. As she said in some interviews and via Twitter, the Russian Petr Yan (former number one at 135 pounds) ended up declining the proposal that he himself raised in April. Despite the interest of both (Ecuador’s more energetic to take the lawsuit to the Octagon) there was nothing concrete due to the dates that each one proposed for the contest and the tricolor would end up negotiating for August 13 with the former bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz.

Sandhagen reportedly also turned down Vera’s challenge to enter the cage before the end of 2022. Later in November, the Chone athlete proposed to champion Aljamain Sterling to meet for the division crown without receiving a favorable response.

The explanation Sandhagen has given is that the UFC offered him that fight with three weeks’ notice, about a month after he fought Chinese Song Yadong. “Don’t try to make it sound like I’m afraid of you, brother. You can fight me after a full camp and it will be a pleasure to kick your ass sometime around February,” said ‘The Sandman’ in statements collected by the YouTube channel of MMA Diary on October 25.

Chito has won four of the last five fights in the UFC, falling only to the Brazilian José Aldo, who is the history of the company after announcing his retirement from mixed martial arts. While Sandhagen returned to victory by beating TKO Yadong in the main event at UFC Vegas 60 in September. It is true that the first call to get into the Octagon was made by Sandhagen the same day that he defeated the Chinese Yadong, and the Ecuadorian responded with a resounding yes. Both are 30 years old.

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