UFC's Cory Sandhagen wants five-round fight with Umar Nurmagomedov – preferably not in Middle East
UFC bantamweight standout Cory Sandhagen hopes his fight with Umar Nurmagomedov is five rounds.
Cory Sandhagen hopes his fight with Umar Nurmagomedov is five rounds.
Sandhagen (17-4 MMA, 10-3 UFC) accepted Nurmagomedov’s (17-0 MMA, 5-0 UFC) callout for their fight to be rebooked. Nurmagomedov is coming off a unanimous decision win over newcomer Bekzat Almakhan at UFC Fight Night 238.
Sandhagen thinks the high pace Nurmagomedov pushed against Almakhan slowed him down, something he plans on exposing in a 25-minute fight. Sandhagen’s past five fights have been scheduled for five rounds, four of which went the distance.
“That’s what I asked for,” Sandhagen said in an interview with Fanatics View. “I feel like I’m a five-round fighter. I do better in five-round fights. The pace that I feel I could be able to push in a three rounder, especially after doing five rounds for the last two or three years of my life, would be maybe enjoyable. I think it would be cool to push the pace that high. If this is a three rounder, I feel like camp is going to be a lot easier.
“It’s not really going to be, but maybe the level of physical getting beat up is going to be less because I don’t need to do seven, eight rounds when I’m sparring if I’m doing a three-round fight. That would kind of mess up the pace in which I would fight at anyways. Yeah, he definitely was breathing hard. He definitely showed a vulnerability, and that’s definitely not something you want to do.”
The UFC already has two events scheduled in the Middle East – June 22 in Riyadh, Saudia Arabia, and Aug. 3 in Abu Dhabi. However, Sandhagen would rather their fight did not take place in the Middle East.
“I don’t know that I should have to go to the other side of the world to fight,” Sandhagen said. “I’m giving him a shot. That’s what it feels like. I am the guy giving him the platform to show that he deserves to fight for the belt next, and, no, I don’t really love the idea of going halfway across the world so that he can have an advantage.”