Cory Sandhagen will be facing off against Iuri Alcantara this Saturday at UFC Fight Night 135 (UFC Lincoln), and it will be his second appearance in the Octagon following a successful debut victory over Austin Arnett at UFC on Fox 27. When it comes to experience gaps, you won’t find much wider than this fight, where Alcantara has over five times the fight experience of Sandhagen, who currently only has eight professional fights under his belt contrasted with Alcantara’s 44! This, of course, gives the 26-year-old Sandhagen plenty of film from which to study. And though, like many 20-somethings, Cory Sandhagen procrastinated completing the necessary studying, when he finally got around to it, he liked what he saw:
“I’m pretty pumped about it,” Sandhagen told James Lynch of Fansided.com. “Honestly, I didn’t watch Iuri until this morning. I don’t like watching guys until 2-3 weeks before because the opponent changes all the time anyways. I don’t want to program too much of just one guy and then have the opponent switch. This morning when I was watching him, I kind of like his style.
“He seems a little goofy, really relaxed. As far as him as a fighter, I think he’s going to be too slow to hit me. I’m going to have to keep my guard up the whole time. I’m not going to be able to slack and get complacent like I did against Arnett. I see it being a really good fight, mostly standup.”
After breaking down the film on the veteran, Sandhagen is better able to envision how he sees the fight playing out come Saturday:
“I see me moving a lot,” he said. “Like, I see me just fighting my style how I always fight. Iuri is going to be a hard guy to target. A lot of his motions are big and unpredictable. Finding a home for the punches is going to be tough. I don’t see it going all three-rounds, I really think I’m going to pick him apart. I’ve seen him get tired in fights, and I have a pace that can go, go, go.”
Do you believe Cory Sandhagen’s prediction of the fight will come true? Or will Alcantara’s experience lead the veteran to victory?
