Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC live on
your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the
ESPN app. The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s bantamweight
division is as alive as it has ever been. ESPN
reported on Thursday night that T.J.
Dillashaw (16-4) will be coming off his two-year suspension on
May 8. There, he will take on surging contender Cory
Sandhagen (14-2) in a possible bantamweight title eliminator
match, as the main event for the evening’s
UFC Fight Night foray. The event does not yet have a
destination selected, as the promotion is still preparing for its
April trip to Florida with a full crowd in attendance for UFC
261.
Dillashaw last competed in January 2019, when he tried to take the
trip down to flyweight to become a two-division champion. Henry
Cejudo turned him away in 32 seconds, thereby keeping
Dillashaw’s career pattern of winning four fights only to lose the
fifth intact. After the loss, Dillashaw surrendered his
bantamweight throne when the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency detected
irregularities in his test results that turned out to be
recombinant human erythropoietin (EPO). The former bantamweight
king won the crown in 2017 by knocking out bitter rival Cody
Garbrandt, and then defended it in a rematch with Garbrandt the
following year.
Barring his 88-second submission loss to current champ Aljamain
Sterling in 2020, Sandhagen has looked nothing short of
spectacular in his run up the 135-pound ladder. The Legacy Fighting Alliance talent burst on to the
scene by rattling off five wins in just over a year and a half,
which included victories over John
Lineker and Raphael
Assuncao. Falling short in his bout to Sterling, Sandhagen
rebounded with sensational knockouts of Marlon
Moraes and Frankie
Edgar in the last five months. Of note, Sandhagen became one of
a very small number of fighters to notch both spinning and flying
knockouts in company history.
The UFC Fight Night event on May 22 has no current location, but it
now has its headliner between Dillashaw and Sandhagen. Other key
matchups on the card include a possible retirement match between
Donald
Cerrone and Diego
Sanchez at welterweight, while Roxanne
Modafferi meets once-beaten Taila
Santos at flyweight.
