Cory Sandhagen is patiently waiting in the wings as the UFC bantamweight title gets set to take center stage in the main event of UFC 316 in two weeks.
Former champion Sean O’Malley (18-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) is scheduled to face the man who dethroned him at UFC 306 last September, Merab Dvalishvili (19-4 MMA, 12-2 UFC), on June 7 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Sandhagen believes he’s in prime position to challenge for the belt once the dust settles after UFC 316.
"I think I'm sitting in a good spot, I just gotta persuade 'em, you know?" Sandhagen (18-5 MMA, 11-4 UFC) said this week during an appearance on Overdogs Podcast. "I did my best in my last fight."
Sandhagen (18-5 MMA, 11-4 UFC) recently secured a victory over former UFC flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo in the main event at UFC Des Moines.
While he’s experienced setbacks against top contenders like Petr Yan, Umar Nurmagomedov, and Aljamain Sterling during his UFC run, “Sandman” takes pride in consistently testing himself against the elite of the bantamweight division. He’s not so sure Sean O’Malley can say the same.
"When you think about O'Malley, he's had a good run at stuff, but I think if you fight tough guys for long enough, there's going to be nights where you just don't win, you know what I mean?" Sandhagen said. "Because all of these guys are really good, and I've fought the best guys for a really long time. Not a lot of other people in the division really get to say that except for maybe Yan and Merab.
"O'Malley's not really one of those guys that gets to say that he's fought all of the best of the best of the division. I think that when he does that, he's gonna have off nights and he's gonna lose. I sometimes have off nights, and I've lost. That's just how fighting works.
"I think that when me and O'Malley fight, I'll get to show that I'm a lot better than him," Sandhagen said. "Unless I get that opportunity, I don't really feel like arguing with the ether of the internet about who's better at what. I think I'll definitely get that opportunity to show that one of these days."
