In the words of boxing legend Rocky Balboa, "it ain't about how hard you hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward." For a lot of fighters, one solid hit in the form of a loss is enough to derail them. Ronda Rousey never recovered from Holly Holm; Chris Weidman, who was 13-0 in 2015, has gone a grim 5-2 since his loss to Luke Rockhold; Jose Aldo had his soul taken by a Conor McGregor 13-second KO following 10 years undefeated.

In the UFC's current bantamweight division, Cory Sandhagen was one of the top prospects. He entered the UFC with a 7-1 record as a lightweight, but quickly went down to bantam and found himself on a five fight win streak over top guys in his weight class such as John Lineker and Raphael Assuncao. This put him in a championship eliminator against Aljamain Sterling at UFC 250 on June 6 this year.

Sandhagen was tapped out in under 90 seconds. It seemed he hadn't planned at all for the smaller cage at the UFC APEX Facility and found himself immediately swallowed up by Sterling who grappled, took his back and then locked in a rear naked choke from a standing position, almost as if he were a human rucksack.

He already has a loss on his record, but a unanimous decision is very different to this, the kind of fast, definitive and borderline embarrassing loss that can ruin a fighter, particularly when they are on such a commanding hot streak.

His next fight, which took place today at UFC Fight Island 5 against Marlon Moraes, would show if this were a blip or a sign Sandhagen had already peaked. Having lost to then-champion Henry Cejudo at UFC 239 on June 8, 2019, Moraes knew he needed a solid win to get another crack at the belt. He got his win against the aforementioned Aldo at UFC 245 at the end of that year; sadly, that feat doesn't mean much anymore and it looked as if he had spent five rounds sparring with a human punch bag instead of actually fighting.

It made sense to match him with Sandhagen and find out who is next in line once #1 Sterling finally faces new champion Petr Yan.

Sandhagen, significantly taller and with a longer reach than his Brazilian opponent, began Round 1 by intentionally keeping a distance. Any time Moraes attempted a range-finding jab or one of his trademark football volley-esque leg kicks, he shimmied back. When Sandhagen did engage, it was to maintain this gap; he leaned into his jabs to keep his fist as far away from his body as possible.

After two minutes he began engaging in earnest, only, again, due to his height and focus on keeping out of Moraes' danger zone, Sandhagen's leg kicks had him dipping so low, it was as if he were attempting the low sweep from Mortal Kombat. Moraes, not known for his patience, swung for the fences.

Sandhagen avoided each and it looked like the round was in the can already, but with two minutes left, it started to look like a high-level ploy. Any time Moraes missed, Sandhagen would close in and start attacking, bringing him close enough for a brawl. Unfortunately, Moraes' reliance on hitting hard rather than hitting fast meant he took more damage than he gave.

According to UFCstats.com, Moraes landed 12 significant strikes in the first frame, less than half of Sandhagen's 30. Worse still, Sandhagen's incredible variety meant an almost even spread between the head, body and legs with 11, eight and 11 respectively. Moraes landed two leg kicks and the rest of his offense went to the head.

Going into Round 2, Sandhagen knew that his fight plan was working and also that Moraes' wasn't. This confidence was clear as he sprinted to the middle of the Octagon to begin. He peppered Moraes with tap-tap jabs and then followed with harder punches and even a front kick when the Brazilian tried to fight back.

With 4:32 remaining in the round, Sandhagen hit a question mark kick that smacked Moraes directly above his right eye. As Moraes recovered, Sandhagen could be heard shouting "his orbital's broke," referring to the orbital bone around the eye that had just been hit and barely 20 seconds later, he hit that bone again with a beautiful spinning heel kick for a TKO win.

Cool, calm and clinical. In just over six minutes, Sandhagen turned the Sterling loss from a possible derailment to barely even registering as a blip.