Number four ranked UFC bantamweight contender Cory Sandhagen has already fought many of the top fighters in his weight class.
His last outing against Umar Nurmagomedov was seen by many as a title eliminator but after losing that contest, he’s back to the drawing board.
In the aftermath of the division crowning a new champion this past weekend at UFC 306, “The Sandman” has called for a fight that a lot of fans have wanted to see for some time.
Unfortunately for Sandhagen, it looks like former champ Sean O’Malley is going to be taking some substantial time off – meaning that if he wants to stay active, he’ll need to look elsewhere.
Cory Sandhagen Says That Henry Cejudo Isn’t Interested In Fighting Unless It’s A Perfect Opportunity For Him
When looking at the other top bantamweights that Sandhagen could fight next, a few names stand out.
Former champion Petr Yan is one spot ahead of him in the rankings but the Russian hasn’t been able to remain active for some time now.
MMA legend José Aldo could be an option, but he would need to get past Mario Bautista at UFC 307 first which would, again, leave Sandhagen waiting.
Deiveson Figueiredo is a very exciting option but “The Sandman” recently revealed that the former UFC flyweight champion turned down a fight in December.
That leaves former flyweight and bantamweight champion Henry Cejudo – but Sandhagen isn’t very confident in this fight being booked.
He believes that Cejudo is far too focused on calling his shots and taking the most favorable fights that he possibly can, remaining on the sidelines until they appear.
Sandhagen told James Lynch in a recent interview with Fanatics View that he sees “Triple C” as someone who isn’t interested in a fight, until it suits him perfectly.
“Henry’s another guy that kind of makes me nervous. It’s not in like a fight sense but in like a way like is this guy actually gonna show up? I feel like Henry’s kind of thing right now is to say that he’s hurt until there’s a match-up that he really wants and then he goes after that one, you know?
“it does irk me a little bit that Henry gets to just come back and then have every single fight that he’s asking for and I think that that’s gotta like, that can’t be the case. Like he just got beat pretty significantly by Merab. You can fight down the rankings a little bit and fight some guys that we’ve beaten before if you want to work your way up, but you don’t get to just be like this figure that calls his fights and gets them every single time.”
