Umar Nurmagomedov won a unanimous decision over Cory Sandhagen at UFC on ABC 7, but was surprised by several aspects of his opponent’s fight.
Nurmagomedov delivered a mixed martial arts masterclass en route to a stunning unanimous decision victory over Sandhagen in the main event at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi on Saturday. Afterwards, the Dagestan star admitted he was surprised by both the stand-up and grappling aspects of Sandhagen’s bout. According to Nurmagomedov, Sandhagen’s grappling defense was better than he expected, but “The Sandman” was surprisingly unimpressed with his striking.
“He was tougher than I expected,” Nurmagomedov told ESPN, “and his defense was better than I expected.”
[anticipated]I got his back and he almost defended and went out. I was surprised. It was very hard to pin him down and take him down. He’s very good, but my striking is much better than his. I’ll accept that. I think he’s much better than me, but I’m not bad. I wasn’t bad today.”
Nurmagomedov appeared outgunned by Sandhagen in the first round, but made the necessary adjustments from the second round onwards, completely changing the course of the bout. The bantamweight challenger credited his corner, which includes the likes of Khabib Nurmagomedov and Javier Mendez, with giving him the confidence to launch his attacks against Sandhagen.
“Once I realized I could win with striking, I changed my strategy a little bit,” he said, “and started figuring out the timing to take him down, the right timing to get a safe takedown, etc. My cornerbacks told me after the first round. They said, ‘Just trust me.’ [in] “You’ve got a great strike. You’re a lot faster than him, you’re a lot better than him. You’ve got to work at it.”
