Cory Sandhagen "Has The Answer" For Umar Nurmagomedov

Cory Sandhagen and Umar Nurmagomedov will be headlining the UFC Abu Dhabi on August 3. The last time when they got booked to face each other in 2023, Umar’s unfortunate shoulder injury made him opt out of the fight, and now UFC has rescheduled it for the fans. Umar Nurmagomedov recovered from the injury and fought Bekzat Almakhan at UFC Vegas 87 this January to announce his return to the Octagon. He won that fight unanimously, whereas Cory Sandhagen also defeated his opponent, Rob Font, a replacement for Umar last year.

Both fighters are rising contenders, and one of them would definitely raise his stakes after the fight to get an opportunity to become the number one contender in the Bantamweight division. Before the fight, Cory Sandhagen looks confident and has figured out his game plan against Umar. Cory said this in his recent podcast with Demetriou Johnson.

“I get a real kick on figuring out how to beat these really good athletes and how to beat these guys, like the Nurmagomedov family has zero losses. I was really excited for the challenge to actually go out and figure out that problem, because he does have a super unique style to him, too. I felt like I had the answer to the problem, and I just had to go show the problem, and then the fight got canceled.”
Cory Sandhagen said

He is extremely confident in his conditioning and cardio, which he thinks are much better than Umar’s. As the two are going to fight for five rounds, Cory thinks Umar has less gas in his tank than him.

“I do really want to fight Umar in a five-round fight because, I don’t know if you watched his last [fight] but he was [out of breathe]. He was working hard though, I’ll give him that. It was well within the realm of reality for him to be that tired… But that fool was really huffing and puffing during the interview.
Cory added