Cory Sandhagen confirms much-anticipated Umar Nurmagomedov matchup for five-round war

Cory Sandhagen and Umar Nurmagomedov's potential showdown is almost confirmed and awaiting dates as declared by Sandhagen himself.

Cory Sandhagen confirms much-anticipated Umar Nurmagomedov matchup for five-round war

Cory Sandhagen accepts callout from Umar Nurmagomedov (Via X/Verdict MMA)

Cory Sandhagen just confirmed that he is ready to take on Umar Nurmagomedov for his next fight. However, the two bantamweights will likely not be fighting at UFC International Fight Week. Here is what happened:

Cory Sandhagen recently told The Schmo about his potential fight against Umar Nurmagomedov. He revealed that they want to be the headliner fight and are now simply waiting for the dates. 

I'm excited if that is the next one is in my head is I'm just kinda waiting on the date. I know that they want it to be a five-rounder. So I don't think it's going to happen at International Fight Week because we like we want to headline that show. So, yeah that's that my man.
Cory Sandhagen via The Schmo
YouTube video

Sandhagen said he was going to go out and put on an intense fight against Nurmagomedov. He wants to build up some hype going into the fight. ‘Sandman’ also said that he hopes bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley wins so that he can fight him as Sandhagen believes that is a fight the people want.

FS Video

Thus, Sandhagen is ready to build up as much hype as he can around his fight against Umar Nurmagomedov. He plans to beat Nurmagomedov and then hopefully land a title shot against O’Malley for a future matchup.

Sandhagen and Nurmagomedov were supposed to fight last year at UFC Nashville. However, Nurmagomedov had to back out from the fight because of injury. Now, after recently beating Bekzat Almakhan by unanimous decision at UFC Vegas 87, Nurmagomedov has called for the UFC to book his fight with Sandhagen next.

Umar Nurmagomedov wants to fight Cory Sandhagen or Petr Yan this August

Cory Sandhagen is not the only opponent in the bantamweight division that Umar Nurmagomedov has his eyes on. He is also open to fighting former division champion Petr Yan in a potential matchup this year.

UFC Fans want to see Petr Yan vs. Umar Nurmagomedov
UFC Fans want to see Petr Yan vs. Umar Nurmagomedov

Petr Yan beat Song Yadong via unanimous decision at UFC 299. This broke his consecutive losing streak ever since 2022. Umar Nurmagomedov took to X, where he congratulated the former champion and declared his interest in a fight this August.

Sandhagen saw this and retweeted it writing that Nurmagomedov cannot call for opponents higher up the ranking and choose his date. Petr Yan has already beat Sandhagen when they fought at UFC 267 for the UFC interim championship title in 2021. It will be interesting to see who the undefeated Nurmagomedov pairs up with for his next fight in the octagon.

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