UFC on ESPN 67: Cory Sandhagen pre-fight interview
UFC on ESPN 67 headliner Cory Sandhagen talks to MMA Junkie’s Mike Bohn ahead of his bantamweight headliner vs. Deiveson Figueiredo on Saturday in Des Moines, Iowa.
If anyone thinks Cory Sandhagen has hit his ceiling in the bantamweight division, he is ready to prove them wrong against Deiveson Figueiredo in the UFC on ESPN 67 main event.
Sandhagen is quite conscious of the way his career has unfolded to this point, and he’s not satisfied. He has some spectacular, impressive and significant wins on his resume, but the losses are what really tell the tale, with Sandhagen falling short against Aljamain Sterling, T.J. Dillashaw and Umar Nurmagomedov in title eliminators, then also dropping an interim title bout against Petr Yan in October 2021.
Those were hard results and lessons for Sandhagen (17-5 MMA, 10-4 UFC), but he said he absorbed them positively into his mental and physical maturity. He now thinks everything is clicking, and is ready to show it against former flyweight champ Figueiredo (24-4-1 MMA, 13-4-1 UFC) on Saturday at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa (ESPN2, ESPN+).
“I’m just losing by inches,” Sandhagen told MMA Junkie. “I’m not really losing by miles against any of these guys. I’ve just got to go out there and touch up some things. I’m sick of being the guy that’s really good at almost winning. I’m done being that dude. It’s hard. It’s hard to beat really good fighters, so I’m trying my best. I think I’ve learned a lot from my experience. I’m a super experienced guy.
“Hopefully I just go out, whoop his ass then I can be the main event fighting for a title. That’s really what I want. I’m over being the main event without a title shot, so hopefully after this one I’ll be able to stamp my ticket to fighting for the belt.”
There have been times where Sandhagen probably could’ve got an undisputed title shot when he was coming off a positive, but for one reason or another, it didn’t break in his way. Going into Saturday’s fight, however, he sees the stars aligning more than ever before.
UFC on ESPN 67 takes place just over one month prior to UFC 316 on June 7, which features a bantamweight title rematch between Merab Dvalishvili and Sean O’Malley in the main event.
Dvalishvili (19-4 MMA, 12-2 UFC) and O’Malley (18-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) have already fought the majority of the top five at 135 pounds, but Sandhagen represents a fresh opponent for whomever leaves that fight with the belt.
Sandhagen said he postponed his honeymoon so he could attend UFC 316 in person and watch Dvalishvili vs. O’Malley from cageside. It’s his intention to beat Figueiredo in a highlight-reel manner, then be there to start promotional efforts to challenge the winner.
“After this one I really think that I’ll land in one of those spots where there’s going to be no one else to fight for the belt,” Sandhagen said. “Umar (Nurmagomedov) has been out for a while, I don’t know what (Petr) Yan is doing. He’s also lost to both of those guys, so I don’t know how interesting of a fight that’ll be if they do a title fight for Yan.
