UFC Nashville: Cory Sandhagen sees Rob Font matchup as a No. 1 contender's bout, at least for himself
It seems so simple, and clear on paper: If Cory Sandhagen defeats Rob Font on Saturday in the main event of UFC Nashville at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee, he'll be the only man left standing to fight the winner of the bantamweight title fight on April 19 in Boston, Massachusetts, between champion Aljamain Sterling and No. 2 contender Sean O'Malley.
Now, it's never as simple or easy in real life as it is on paper, and the UFC has made no promises about who goes next. UFC president Dana White despises making matches at post-fight news conferences, let alone talking about theoretical matches with two fights left to go.
But Sandhagen, who is fourth at bantamweight, sees things in a manner that makes sense: No. 1 Merab Dvalishvili is not only Sterling's friend and won't fight him were Sterling to beat O'Malley, but he's also injured. O'Malley is fighting Sterling for the title in Boston and No. 3 Henry Cejudo is injured.
Sandhagen has history with Sterling — Sterling submitted him at UFC 250 in 2020 right after the UFC returned from the pandemic shutdown — and would be the highest-ranked contender if he defeats Font.
Font accepted the bout in the main event against Sandhagen when Umar Nurmagomedov pulled out. Given the difference in style between Nurmagomedov, a grappler and Font, a kickboxer, it was a risk to take the bout at all.
In boxing, the bout would most likely have been postponed, but Sandhagen welcomed the challenge to stay on the card by facing Font.
"Font's style is familiar to me and though he's not the guy I was getting ready for, and I was really excited to fight Umar because I really do feel like he has a unique style and I believe I figured how to crack that style in training camp, I could [accept the change] because Font's style is one I've seen many times before," Sandhagen said. "You know, I felt like I had done a good job in camp of figuring out how to crack the code of [Nurmagomedov's] style, but you have to be able to adjust when needed.
"Font's style is pressure-based and is very kickboxing and boxing-oriented. I know how to deal with that style so it was not a problem."
Nor was Font's request to take the fight at 140 pounds, five above the bantamweight limit. Sandhagen admitted, though, that he'd have had a lot of thinking to do had he originally been scheduled to fight Font and Nurmagomedov was proposed as a replacement.
Nurmagomedov's style isn't common and takes time to decipher. But it also runs the other way as well, he said.
"When something like an opponent falling out happens and they offer you a new fight, you weigh all those things in," Sandhagen said. "A big piece of winning in fights at this level is a good game plan and strategy. Switching to an opponent I'm familiar with is a strategic and tactical decision. Against a Rob Font, because me and the coaches have seen it so many times, and we're really familiar with his skill set, it's an OK move to fight him on short notice.
"In the same vein, I know how unorthodox my style is to a lot of people and if you're not familiar with fighting someone with a style like mine, it's incredibly difficult to figure it out while you're in the cage or even on a 2 1/2 week notice. So weighing those things in, knowing I'm comfortable fighting that style and I know Rob can't figure this style out in 2 1/2 weeks, because he'd need much longer than that to really be battle-tested ... it all made sense for me to go [forward with the fight]."
Sandhagen responds to O'Malley
Taking on the style of Nurmagomedov earned him a bit of criticism from O'Malley, who wondered on his podcast why Sandhagen, at No. 4, would have ever accepted a bout against No. 11 Nurmagomedov.
"It's like, 'Who's managing Cory's career?'" O'Malley said on the podcast. "What are we doing here? Why Umar? He's not ranked, is he? 15, maybe. Why not wait for Merab? Merab has a way bigger name. Merab's ranked No. 1. You can get that fight. You can fight Merab. They're both very tough fights.
"But, I mean, some people aren't in the smarts business. They're in the — they're just getting told and they're like, 'Yes, master.' You've got to respect it a little bit. He's going out there like, 'F*** it.' But, yeah, if you have the opportunity to fight Merab, and you definitely can get that fight, you guys are both up there, why go fight Umar? It's just poor management, I think."
Sandhagen said he and O'Malley view the world and the fight game vastly differently and so he disagreed with O'Malley's point.
He said money isn't what motivates him to try to get to the top.
"I think me and O'Malley have fundamentally very different viewpoints on life," Sandhagen said. "I think that he's really interested in being an icon, or a famous person. What I'm interested in is being the absolute most deadly weapon martial arts person you can ever be in life. ...
"I don't really agree with the way he views the sport. I don't agree with, and I think this is one of his quotes, to take the easiest fights for the most amount of money. That is so backward from the way and I view the sport. Viewing the sport in that way is going to ruin the sport and turn the sport into something like boxing, where you have really high-maintenance guys making high-maintenance decisions. That's not fun and not cool and that [attitude] is why boxing isn't doing as well as maybe it potentially could be doing. But me and O'Malley are just different people and we see the same things differently. That's life."
