UFC bantamweight Cory Sandhagen knows that he’s dropped a few rungs on the 135-pound ladder since last October. He has no regrets about his choice to compete for the interim bantamweight title on short notice, however, even if the loss to Petr Yan set him back in his pursuit of UFC gold. Ahead of his return to action opposite Song Yadong this weekend, Sandhagen discussed the Yan fight on The Fighter vs The Writer.
“I’m glad I took the opportunity. You definitely say yes to a title fight almost always, nine times out of 10. So I don’t regret taking the opportunity. I guess it kind of put me at the end of the line with all these matches that have been made recently, like the fights that are happening now.
Sandhagen Has No Regrets About Yan Loss
A couple months ago, I felt it put me at the bottom of the line as far as choice for the fight. I thought I was going to get [Jose] Aldo, Merab [Dvalishvili], ‘Chito’ [Marlon Vera] or [Dominick] Cruz and I didn’t get any of those guys, which is what I wanted.”
Cory Sandhagen’s loss to Petr Yan marked his second in a row, but he remains proud of his performance. “I thought I was doing really awesome.
It was just getting dropped late in that third round that messed up my fourth round. Because honestly I was on wobbly legs for the entire fourth. Once my heart rate came down going into the fifth round, I was able to fight a little bit more like myself but I had to fight a little bit more reserved because I knew I couldn’t take the damage I was taking in the fourth round.
“Strategically, I had to make some changes, which led to me not being able to completely open up and to completely focus on winning. It became a little bit more about not taking too much damage.”
Sandhagen was surprised to be matched up against Song Yadong, who sits tenth in the division, and is riding a three-fight winning streak. At the end of the day, he feels that it’s better to be active than inactive.
“First of all when I got the name, I was very surprised. I was like that’s super left field but yes, we’ll take that because it’s better than just sitting on the bench and waiting for these guys to fight. I don’t know what was going on in the whole matchmaking process. I don’t know if it was a matter of they said they weren’t going to fight me or I don’t hold enough clout like some of the other guys.”
Can Cory Sandhagen correct his two-fight skid this weekend? Let us know in the comments.
