UFC: Iuri Alcantara expresses grief about his loss to Cody Sandhagen, says ‘The armbar was perfect, I thought he would tap’

The preliminary card of Fight Night 135 in Lincoln, Nebraska featured a bantamweight bout between veteran Iuri ‘Marajo’ Alcantara and newcomer Cody Sandhagen.

Alcantara being a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt and known for his sleek submissions, locked in a tight arm bar. To everybody’s surprise, Sandhagen defended the arm bar and later on used heavy ground and pound to break Alcantara’s nose and win the bout via TKO. The long time UFC veteran did had to go under the knife. Now that the surgery is done, Alcantara told Combate that Sandhagen deserves credit for his victory.

“It was a really good fight,” Alcantara said. “I was ready to go after him and finish the fight if he gave me any opportunities. The only reason I didn’t finish him is that he never tapped. The armbar was perfectly locked in, I thought he was going to tap. Then I released it and tried bending his arm in a different direction, but, again, he didn’t tap. It’s his merit, I can’t take that away fro my opponent. He’s a tough guy who endured that hold and then made the fight go his way. He hit me with some ground and pound and it broke my nose in the first round. I couldn’t really breathe that well in the second round, because my nose was all crushed.”

Both the fighters ended up winning the ‘Fight of the Night’ honour with $50,000 each.