Ahead of his next fight, go inside Saturday’s main event with headliner Cory Sandhagen.
Sandhagen (16-4 MMA, 9-3 UFC) fights Rob Font (20-6 MMA, 10-5 UFC) in a 140-pound contract weight in the main event at UFC on ESPN 50 at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn. The card airs on ESPN and streams on ESPN+.
Sandhagen talked to MMA Junkie’s Mike Bohn about the matchup, opponent change and state of the bantamweight division. Check out Sandhagen in the video above and all his talking points below.
On fighting in Nashville
I’m all good. I usually get in as late as the UFC allows me to on Tuesday, so I haven’t really done too much (Wednesday) other than a bunch of interviews. Maybe I’ll check it out today or tomorrow or something, but I’ve been to Nashville before and I really like the city, so I’m excited to be here.
On being in another main event
I love that. I’m really flattered about it. I think that the UFC sees my potential. I know that I fight real exciting. That’s always a thing that I can kind of set apart from where I know a lot of other guys have to think about whether the UFC or the fans or whoever is going to like their fights – I don’t ever really have to think about that because I know that I’m a really exciting and fun guy to watch.
On getting a boost from the fans
Big time. Big time. I didn’t really realize how much I missed it until the last fight against (Marlon) ‘Chito’ (Vera), and I was like, ‘This is so awesome.’ It’s amazing having people actually be there for the fight and it makes it feel that much bigger., I like big moments. I want to have really memorable, historic moments in this sport. Fighting in front of really awesome crowds as a main event is definitely something that I get to remember and I get to put my little stamp in the history book, which is something that’s important to us humans sometimes.
On getting rebooked vs. Font
It was pretty immediate. I got a call from my agent at a time that he usually doesn’t call me. It was a little bit later in the afternoon, kind of nighttime-ish, and I was like, ‘Well, this isn’t going to be good.’ And then he told me that Umar pulled out. I said, ‘OK. Well, who are we fighting instead?’ He said potentially Rob Font. I said I thought that Font was scheduled to fight Song (Yadong). He explained to me that Song was maybe a little dinged up, and I was like, ‘Cool – Rob Font sounds great. Let’s do Font.’ And then it took a couple days for Rob to decide, I guess.
On being at a 140-pound catchweight
He wanted to do a catchweight and I was like, ‘If you were scheduled to fight two weeks later, I’d feel like the five pounds shouldn’t make that big of a difference.’ But he really wanted a catchweight, so we took it at a catchweight. That’s kind of how that went. … Five pounds, especially since it was on two and a half weeks’ notice – I get it. … I had to do my fair share of changes and things like that, too, but I’m real excited that I still get to fight and the catchweight is, whatever. If that’s what he wants to do, then that’s what we’ll do.
On his potential opportunity with a win
I’m excited about it. I really didn’t want to train my ass off for three straight months and then not have a fight. I’m in tip-top shape. I’m in tip-top skill level. I’m centered. I’m zen. I’m ready to go. I’m ready to get this win, and then stamp my letter of approval to get my title shot after this.
… I think that after this fight, who else can you really say should get a title shot other than me? Definitely Merab, but Merab’s out right now and he won’t fight Aljamain. That leaves a big question mark. Then Cejudo really got granted a pretty golden gift when he got an immediate title shot after retiring and all that. I fought real good against Song. I beat ‘Chito’ by a pretty giant margin. I go out and I beat another really tough, experienced guy in the division, and I think that I’m definitely the next guy to fight for the belt.
On Font stepping up on short notice
Honestly, I would like to give some thanks to Rob for even taking the fight. He didn’t have to. I’m happy that he did. I think that in the division, I get viewed as definitely one of the more challenging fights – definitely one of the more unorthodox styles to try to figure out – and he’s willing to accept it on a two and a half weeks’ notice. That’s about as friendly and as nice as I’ll be talking about Rob Font this week. But I would like to applaud. He’s the one that saved this card, because there really wouldn’t have been too many other guys that I think would have been reasonable asks for me to take this fight. Rob Font deserves some credit for taking a really unorthodox fight in two and a half weeks.
On the odds
I’m really excited for the challenge, the switch-up, which was a really big stylistic switch up for myself, too – not only stylistically, but also from a narrative standpoint where I went from underdog to being the favorite, which does a little bit of things to your mind sometimes and takes some settling into.
On MMA judging
It kind of seems like we’re at this weird point in MMA where they’re really trying to score damage as being like the thing that is the criteria. On paper, that’s always been the criteria, but now it seems like they’re really enforcing damage over control. But because it is at this in-between period, it seems like not all the judges are on board with that shift, or they don’t know how much to shift. Is it an immediate shift? Because usually, change happens over time. So it seems to me like that’s where we are in MMA a little bit. It is posing this really challenging problem, but I do think that the judging in MMA is trending in a really good direction – with the exception of the judge in the ‘Chito’ fight, who is just really bad at his job.
On how he matches up with Font
I think that I’m a more modern, well-engineered weapon than Rob. I think he’s definitely good at what he does, but I think overall skill set in MMA, I’m better. I think what Rob does really well is score his jab from the outside, put a ton of pressure. I have a lot of attributes that aren’t going to make that easy for Rob to try to do – me being the taller, just as long guy, and then me having really, really good footwork. Makes it, you know, like his advantages that he would have really not that significant going into the fight. I would be very upset if I let myself lose to Rob. I know I’ve worked hard. I’m prepared for whatever battle and war is going to happen in this 25 minutes. If I stay focused and I fight smart like I do, I think that I go home with a win for sure.
On potential re-booking with Umar Nurmagomedov
I definitely think that me and Umar will fight each other in the future. Am I going to fight Umar the second he gets back just because we were scheduled to (fight this week)? Maybe, but maybe not. Just because we were scheduled doesn’t mean that things don’t change I think Umar is definitely a phenomenal fighter. One day, I will fight him and I’m really excited for that challenge. It’s unfortunate when you get hurt, but I’m looking at a title shot after this. I’m not looking back down (in the rankings).
On his pick for Sterling-O'Malley
I don’t really know. O’Malley definitely knows how to hit someone real hard. There’s always that factor. But you can only put so many eggs into that basket when you’re talking about fighting. Aljamain has been a proven hell of a competitor. Aljamain’s style is unorthodox. It doesn’t appear aesthetically to be the most efficient thing in the world. But I think that Aljamain is an extremely high-level competitor. He has a really good mind and he’s really mentally solid. I don’t know if I could say the same thing for O’Malley. I think that O’Malley is definitely technically really good, but in his fights, except for the (Petr) Yan fight – which was like a really questionable decision anyways – you really haven’t seen O’Malley be pushed. He looked real tired after those three rounds. Sterling’s really used to doing the full five rounds. On paper, you’ve kind of got to give it to Sterling. But you can never really count out the guy that hits real hard.
On his Sterling-O'Malley preference
Just viewing it from a personal standpoint, I think O’Malley is definitely the fan-chosen person. Iin my opinion, there’s not a more exciting matchup in the 135 division than me and O’Malley. People want to see that fight happen. … At the same time, I definitely don’t want Aljamain Sterling to just leave without losing and kind of make us all look like a bunch of b*tches by just peace-ing out. So I would really like to see another fight with me and Aljamain. I think that one, it would just feel good to get some revenge. I’ve been telling him I owe him a nap for a really long time. So I really want to adhere to my word. But I also think it would be a really inspiring story for me to come back from a really sh*tty loss that I had against Sterling, work my way back up all of these rankings, and then fight him again and win. A big piece of me being in the sport is trying to do my best to be a good example and inspire other people, and I think that would be a super inspiring story. So just from my personal standpoint, I would rather fight Aljamain just because I really think it would be one for me. But I think that it’s a win-win because the fans want to watch me fight O’Malley, too.
On how he wins
I definitely think that there’s a lot of paths to victory for me in this one and there’s not as many for Rob. I think that my skills are better. I know that Rob’s a hard worker and I know that he wants it. I want it just as bad and I work just as hard as everyone else in this sport, probably – maybe a little bit harder. But I think that I’m going to go home with a win. I don’t know how it’s going to happen. Sorry. I know that’s not the shiniest answer in the world, but I’m just real focused on myself. I’m real focused on doing what I need to do to win. I know that if I do those things, I definitely can see the fight not going past 25 minutes. I think that I can either submit him or knock him out, or really outpoint him. I think that I just have so many paths to victory in this fight that it would surprise me if it went all 25 minutes.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 50.
