Cory Sandhagen (17-4) doesn’t think bookmakers are priced his upcoming fight with Umar Nurmagomedov (17-0) based on the ability of either fighter.
Sandhagen will face Nurmagomedov in the main event of UFC Abu Dhabi on August 3 in a bout billed as a showdown of the No. 1 contenders in the bantamweight division. Sandhagen is a +215 underdog and Nurmagomedov is a -265 favorite.
Sandhagen isn’t too fond of the odds difference, but he’s not too worried. “The Sandman” believes Nurmagomedov is the favorite to win in large part due to the success of his teammate Islam Makhachev, who recently defended his lightweight title at UFC 302 with a fifth-round submission win over Dustin Poirier.
Sandhagen believes the Dagestani Legion’s spectacular success has influenced his chances in a future showdown with Nurmagomedov. While Sandhagen says the hype around the Dagestani Legion is justified, he disagrees with building an image of any particular fighter as invincible.
“Yeah, I’ve seen that. Yeah, that’s fine. Islam is on the ball and that’s definitely a big factor,” Sandhagen told Sportskeeda. “Like they’re intertwined. There’s a big story of Dagestan going on and they’re great fighters too. There’s definitely a lot of truth to that story, but making them seem invincible is definitely not a real part of the story… Yeah, I don’t really like that. I usually see myself as the favorite to win, but I don’t mind losing every now and again.”
Sandhagen has been slowly improving his grappling skills, but the matchup between this elite striker and Nurmagomedov is expected to be a classic striker vs. wrestler match. Ideally, he would train with a partner who has a similar style to his opponent, but Sandhagen has not had much success finding a Dagestani training partner because of his deep friendships with Dagestanis. However, Sandhagen has trained with grapplers from Tajikistan and Azerbaijan, from whom he learned the Dagestani style.
“It’s hard because we’re all good friends, so I’ll reach out to my friends and say, ‘Can I have this guy come train with me? Would he be a good training partner?’ and they’re like, ‘Yeah, but they’re friends of Umar or friends of so-and-so who knows Umar, so they’re just friends,'” Sandhagen said. “So it’s really hard to get those guys together, but hopefully we’ll have Mohammed Naimov… he’s from Tajikistan, which is different from Dagestan… we’ve got some guys from Tajikistan and Azerbaijan, so we know the guys. The styles are different, but it’s not like they’re radically different. They just attack and do things a little differently than American-style wrestling.”
