Cory Sandhagen will be competing in the main event of UFC on ESPN+37 tonight opposite Marlon Moraes, and the booking of the bout came as a surprise to many, including Sandhagen himself.
When Cory Sandhagen lost to Aljamain Sterling via first-round submission at UFC 250, he was prepared to go back to the drawing board and work his way back to title contention. So you can imagine his surprise when he discovered he would be facing Marlon Moraes next. After all, it’s not every day that a young fighter receives the #1 contender for his next opponent coming off a loss.
“I was very happily surprised,” Sandhagen told MMA Fighting. “I was more worried that they were going to throw me someone down the list. They were going say ‘that was a really terrible fight on Cory’s end, he must not be as good as people think that he is so let’s get somebody to have a higher ranking and give him someone that’s more down the list.’ They said Moraes and I was like no way they’re going to do that. That’s great but I don’t think that they’re going to do that.”
“My agent called me and said ‘they’re going to be sending you the contract soon’ and I was like wow this is actually happening. I was grateful.”
Even with a victory over #1-ranked Marlon Moraes, that most likely would not be enough to earn Sandhagen a title shot, not with Aljamain Sterling still lurking in the wings and holding a recent victory over him. But Sandhagen believes that he still has what it takes to be world champion, and that begins with the tough task ahead of him tonight.
“If I believe I can be the champ and that’s what I want, these are the fights that are going to happen. He’s very dangerous. He’s really technical. You can’t really rip him apart as far as there being too many thing wrong with how he fights. I’m excited for that challenge.”
Do you believe Cory Sandhagen will become world champion one day?
