Cory Sandhagen heard the boos, but says UFC Nashville win went according to plan

Cory Sandhagen likely would’ve preferred the fans for his main event left the arena after having showered praise and applause on him.

Instead, Sandhagen (17-4 MMA, 10-3 UFC) got hit fairly consistently by the boo-birds through much of the final four rounds of his 50-45 sweep of the scorecards against Rob Font (20-7 MMA, 10-6 UFC) in the UFC on ESPN 50 main event in Nashville, Tenn. The fans at Bridgestone Arena let Sandhagen know a finish was going to be appreciated.

The finish never came, but Sandhagen said the win went how it was supposed to go, and that was to send a message to future opponents that if they think they can beat Sandhagen by keeping him off the feet, he might just be the one that instigates a ground fight.

“That was the game plan,” Sandhagen said. “I thought that honestly he would have made some pretty good adjustments and stuff a couple of them later in the fight. Font doesn’t wrestle that good. He doesn’t have an immediate wrestler reaction. He doesn’t get up very well. The only way that he really gets up is on that underhook, and if I just shut that down, he’s not going to really get up.

“I know that there’s lots of boos and it’s not the most exciting win for the people in the crowd. But I (swept the scorecards against) the No. 7 guy in the world. The time before that, I arguably (did the same against Marlon Vera), except for the one idiot of a judge (who made it a split decision). And then the one before that, I beat Song Yadong by stopping him in the fourth with a with a really bad cut. I’m on my way to being one of the best mixed martial artists in the world. I want to be able to outwrestle the strikers and I want to be able to outstrike the wrestlers. That’s my path. That’s what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to be the best in the world, and I think I showed tonight that if you’re going to think that it’s just going to be a striking match, we’re wrestling.”

Sandhagen now has won three straight fights after a two-fight skid that saw him drop decisions to former champions T.J. Dillashaw and Petr Yan. The latter fight, at UFC 267 in October 2021, was for the vacant bantamweight title.

The win over Font – though it came on short notice, which made him even more expected to win – has Sandhagen officially back in the title picture at 135 pounds, and he said he’ll be in Boston later this month for UFC 292, at which bantamweight champ Aljamain Sterling will put his title on the line against first-time challenger Sean O’Malley.

Plain and simple: Sandhagen wants the winner, even if it’s a new champ.

“I like that match, too,” he said. “I know the fans would be really excited about that. O’Malley is a hell of an athlete, and I’m excited about that fight, too. I think that that’s one that the fans really, really want to see, so I think it’s a win-win for me (if it’s Sterling or O’Malley).”

Sandhagen said his post-fight medical exam may have revealed a torn triceps muscle, and the 31-year-old also said lingering elbow issues might need to be taken care of before he gets back in there.

But considering the Sterling-O’Malley winner likely will want some time off, maybe Sandhagen can get healthy while waiting and watching things unfold. He was set to fight the highly touted Umar Nurmagomedov in Saturday’s main event before Nurmagomedov pulled out, and that could be a fight he gets asked to take before a title shot, too.

But even though the majority of the fans sounded like they were nonplussed with the way Sandhagen went about his win over Font – he had nearly 20 minutes of control time in a 25-minute fight – he said it was how things had to go making the change from Nurmagomedov.

“I think honestly, you can’t sleep on Font,” Sandhagen said. “No one knows how good Umar is. He’s played up like he’s a really phenomenal fighter. He’s definitely real good. So is everyone else in the 135 division, you know? I didn’t buy into the whole ‘Umar’s this next phenom’ thing, not because I don’t think that Umar is good, because I know he’s good. But you don’t know until you’re a little bit of a ways into this career.

“That was my 13th fight (in the UFC). That was my fifth main event. You don’t know things about Umar like you know things about me, but I wouldn’t necessarily call Font an easier opponent. It’s one that I’m definitely more familiar with fighting, but that doesn’t make him an easy fight to take on two and a half weeks’ notice, especially because he was getting ready to fight Song before that.

“But I would also like to praise Rob Font big time. He didn’t have to take this fight. The reason I was on this card is because Rob Font took the fight. There wasn’t going to be too many other people, so I’m super grateful to Rob for that. I think that the people should really give him some credit for that, too, because one, he’s a phenomenal fighter. And two, he took a fight against me on two and a half weeks’ notice, main event. That’s a big deal. So all the applause to Rob, also.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 50.