Dvalishvili's reign continues in rout of Sandhagen

Merab Dvalishvili keeps rolling along, successfully defending the UFC bantamweight title with his 14th consecutive triumph successful a manhandling of Cory Sandhagen Saturday nighttime successful the co-main lawsuit of UFC 320 successful Las Vegas.

Dvalishvili (21-4), defending his loop for the 3rd time, took afloat power successful Round 2, dropping Sandhagen with a flurry of punches and besides landing 8 takedowns connected 13 attempts. Dvalishvili landed 33 important strikes successful the circular to conscionable 2 by Sandhagen.

From that constituent on, Sandhagen was mostly connected the defensive, and portion helium did not deterioration down similar immoderate past Dvalishvili opponents have, helium ne'er earnestly threatened the champion. The judges scored the combat 49-45, 49-45 and 49-46.

Dvalishvili said helium was amazed that helium was incapable to decorativeness the combat successful that ascendant 2nd round.

"Remember, I said my program is to sound him out. Almost, almost," helium said. "Now I deliberation radical volition respect my striking, too."

The astir highly respected portion of Dvalishvili's game, though, is his wrestling. Over 5 rounds, helium was relentless with his wrestling pressure, attempting 37 takedowns and landing 20, a UFC grounds for a rubric combat and the 2nd astir successful immoderate bout wrong the Octagon. It was Dvalishvili's 5th combat successful which helium has landed 10 oregon much takedowns, and helium extended his ain UFC grounds for full takedowns, which present sits astatine 117.

Dvalishvili's winning streak is the fourth-longest successful UFC history. He hasn't mislaid a combat since April 2018 and sits atop the ESPN men's bantamweight rankings, portion besides being No. 3 pound-for-pound.

Sandhagen (18-6), a 33-year-old from Aurora, Colorado, who is ESPN's No. 5 135-pounder, was looking to go the lone antheral American champion. When heavyweight Jon Jones retired successful June and vacated his title, it was the archetypal clip since 2004 that nary American antheral held a title.