“The Ref Just Jumped on Me” – Marlon Moraes Feels Cory Sandhagen Stoppage Was a Bit Early

Marlon Moraes had a chance to get closer to a second shot at the UFC bantamweight title. However, Cory Sandhagen thwarted his plans into oblivion by a spinning head kick. While Moraes accepts he got caught, he still feels the referee stepped in a bit too early.

Following the defeat, Moraes gave props to his opponent for catching him with the kick. However, he wasn’t in tandem with the stoppage from referee Marc Goddard, who could’ve waited for a second or two before stepping in.

“I just got caught. I was doing good first round and I was excited for this fight but unfortunately I got caught. I caught a lot of guys before and that was my day. I thought we had a good first round, I won the round,” he said. “Then he catch me with a kick, bloodied my eye a bit and right after he came the other way and that’s it, you know,” he added.

Following the kick, Cory hit the former title challenger with a few punches due to which Marc Goddard stopped the fight. However, a large chunk of fans was of the opinion that referee could’ve given a tad bit more time to Moraes.

Marlon Moraes remains humble in defeat

Marlon Moraes last fought against Jose Aldo. Despite winning on the judges’ scorecard, the vast majority watching the fight scored it for Aldo. With Saturday’s loss against Sandhagen, Moares will certainly drop in the pecking order of a stacked 135-pound division.

“Probably a little early stoppage, but, whatever. The ref just jumped on me, didn’t have enough time to get up. But this is prizefighting. We put on a show. One guy win, one guy loses and today was not my day,” Moraes added.

After the win, Sandhagen has firmly bounced back into the title picture. His fight prior to this one ended in a defeat against Aljamain Sterling. Given that ‘The Funk Master’ will most likely fight the champ, Petr Yan, Sandhagen is the next one in line for a title shot.

Moraes, on the other hand, will go back to the drawing board. There is no shortage of quality competition in the division against whom the former WSOF champion can prove his worth and reclaim his ranking spot.