Cory Sandhagen open to rebooking Umar Nurmagomedov fight if it's No. 1 contender, and 'he does awesome' on March 2

Cory Sandhagen is willing to reschedule his fight against Umar Nurmagomedov, but under two conditions.

Sandhagen (17-4 MMA, 10-3 UFC) was booked to face Nurmagomedov in the UFC on ESPN 50 headliner this past August, but faced Rob Font instead after Nurmagomedov withdrew due to injury. Sandhagen dominated Font, but tore his triceps in Round 1.

At first, Sandhagen wasn’t keen on fighting Nurmagomedov (16-0 MMA, 4-0 UFC) again. He explains that after beating Font, he expected to take a step forward, not backwards.

“It wasn’t necessarily a no as much as it was like, ‘Hey, give me some time to think about it,’ because it does feel like I would maybe be a little slighted in that situation – only because I felt like I was now one fight ahead of fighting him,” Sandhagen told MMA on SiriusXM. “If you’re paired up to fight someone and one guy pulls out, and then you win your fight, you’re kind of ahead, in my opinion, right?

“But when I talked to the UFC initially and they brought that up, I was pretty much like, ‘Hey, just give me a little time to think and sit with that one,’ because if that’s what you guys are telling me is going to be for the title next, then absolutely. But if that’s not going to be the situation, then the rankings matter a little bit – or at least they kind of do.”

Nurmagomedov drew Kazakhstan’s Bekzat Almakhan (17-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) March 2 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. With UFC CEO Dana White saying Merab Dvalishvili is now No. 1 contender, Sandhagen will consider the Nurmagomedov fight if he looks impressive against Almakhan.

“Where I stand with Umar now is if he gets a good win on March 2, and he looks good, and he does awesome, and they don’t give me the title shot next, do me and Umar at International Fight Week,” Sandhagen said.

“Obviously there’s a lot of things that need to have happened before that happens, but I’m still open to Umar. I just felt like I was one fight ahead of him, and now that he has the opportunity to not make that the case, then I’m definitely back open to it.”