Sandhagen advocates for Sterling to get next title shot

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Wild

Zi Nazi
Admin
Dec 31, 2014
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UFC Fight Night: Moraes v Sandhagen


Fresh off of beating Marlon Moraes in spectacular fashion in the headliner of UFC Fight Island 5, Cory Sandhagen is talking up what he thinks makes most sense for him and the 135 lb division.

In his post-fight press conference Sandhagen expressed that Aljamain Sterling most deserves the first title shot at recently crowned bantamweight champion Petr Yan.

“I would feel really bad if they did me and Yan and did that to Sterling,” said Sandhagen, per MMA Fighting. “That said, it’s a dog eat dog sport, so if they give me that shot, I’m taking that shot. But I think it should be Sterling and Yan.”


Sandhagen said that if that fight gets made, his goal would be to stay ready as a possible alternate should either Yan or Sterling fall out of the match-up.

“I’m definitely going to do that of course now, because I think that I’m probably the No. 1 guy if one of those guys gets hurt.”

For himself Sandhagen thinks either a match-up with former UFC bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw or former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar makes a lot of sense. Dillashaw is eligible to compete in January after serving a lengthy suspension related to testing positive for the banned substance EPO.

Sandhagen showed he didn’t have strong feelings on which of those former champions he would prefer to face. He suggested he was happy for the UFC to decide which of those big names gets him closest to a title fight.

“I don’t really know how the mind of the UFC matchmakers works 100 percent,” he said. “I just know win fights, get good finishes and they’ll give you good fights.

Sandhagen came into the UFC in 2018, off the back of a successful—featherweight title winning—run in LFA. In his debut he pasted Austin Arnett for a body shot TKO win. After that he beat Iuri Alcantara, Mario Bautista, John Lineker and Raphael Assuncao.

At UFC 250 in June he was quickly beaten by Sterling, via a first round rear naked choke. That was just the second loss in Sandhagen’s career. After beating Moraes last night his record stands at 13-2.


Cory Sandhagen says he’d feel ‘really bad’ if UFC gave him a title shot over Aljamain Sterling
 
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megatherium

el rey del mambo
First 100
Jan 15, 2015
8,798
11,164
Geez, I had planned to watch this one and join the gang here in the live thread.

Plumb forgot...
 

kneeblock

Drapetomaniac
Apr 18, 2015
12,435
23,026
Sterling/Yan
Sandhagen/TJ
Edgar/Cruz
Moraes/Aldo

That would be a fun 135 schedule. Aldo/Moraes winner fights Edgar/Cruz winner. TJ/Sandhagen winner gets Sterling/Yan winner.
 

Sheepdog

Protecting America from excessive stool loitering
Dec 1, 2015
8,912
14,237
Sterling/Yan
Sandhagen/TJ
Edgar/Cruz
Moraes/Aldo

That would be a fun 135 schedule. Aldo/Moraes winner fights Edgar/Cruz winner. TJ/Sandhagen winner gets Sterling/Yan winner.
I disagree with all of these contender fights. It's time to ship some of these guys off to the glue factory, not build them again as serious contenders. No point shoehorning a bunch of senior citizens, inactive fighters and guys on multi-fight losing streaks into fights against each other.

Either feed them to, or let them prove they've still got it against the younger lower top-10, not each other or the next contender in Sandhagen.

Feed Frankie to Sandhagen to keep him active and to build for the next title shot while giving him a name.

I would have TJ fight Jimmie Rivera to see if he has still got it.

Cruz should fight Marlon Vera. Moraes should fight Rob Font. Aldo can fight Merab Dvalishvili or Cody Stamman.

I would keep Song Yadong away from wily old vets though. Too young and green.
 

kneeblock

Drapetomaniac
Apr 18, 2015
12,435
23,026
I disagree with all of these contender fights. It's time to ship some of these guys off to the glue factory, not build them again as serious contenders. No point shoehorning a bunch of senior citizens, inactive fighters and guys on multi-fight losing streaks into fights against each other.

Either feed them to, or let them prove they've still got it against the younger lower top-10, not each other or the next contender in Sandhagen.

Feed Frankie to Sandhagen to keep him active and to build for the next title shot while giving him a name.

I would have TJ fight Jimmie Rivera to see if he has still got it.

Cruz should fight Marlon Vera. Moraes should fight Rob Font. Aldo can fight Merab Dvalishvili or Cody Stamman.

I would keep Song Yadong away from wily old vets though. Too young and green.
TJ is still young in age and fights and it stands to reason as the prior champ that he'd get Sandhagen, who's probably eager for another money fight that'll make him undisputed #1 contender. Moraes and Aldo would probably be a retirement fight for Aldo, but Moraes has been around quite awhile himself. They're both close in age and number of fights. Frankie and Dom have been campaigning to fight one another as a legends fight for awhile. I'd love seeing a Del Fierro fighter against a Mark Henry fighter. It's not a bad idea from a sport's young lions to send the old timers out to pasture to shake up the rankings, but these fights would be essentially fan service and would probably not put anyone back into contention except Sandhagen/TJ.
 

Sheepdog

Protecting America from excessive stool loitering
Dec 1, 2015
8,912
14,237
TJ is still young in age and fights and it stands to reason as the prior champ that he'd get Sandhagen, who's probably eager for another money fight that'll make him undisputed #1 contender. Moraes and Aldo would probably be a retirement fight for Aldo, but Moraes has been around quite awhile himself. They're both close in age and number of fights. Frankie and Dom have been campaigning to fight one another as a legends fight for awhile. I'd love seeing a Del Fierro fighter against a Mark Henry fighter. It's not a bad idea from a sport's young lions to send the old timers out to pasture to shake up the rankings, but these fights would be essentially fan service and would probably not put anyone back into contention except Sandhagen/TJ.
TJ is not young. He's nearly 35. That is not young for midget divisions by any stretch.

TJ was a prior champ who got KOd by the same midget, who then came up and took the 135 belt too. He has no claim to being the champ.

He has been out for 2 years and will be off a lot of the juice. Let's see if he can beat someone else decent before throwing him to Sandhagen.