Cory Sandhagen is brimming with confidence forward of his title tilt with Merab Dvalishvili.
After years of combating his approach up the bantamweight division, ‘Sandman’ will lastly have his shot at undisputed gold when he challenges Dvalishvili for the 135-pound crown within the UFC 320 co-main occasion on Saturday night time.
Sandhagen goes into the bout as a winner in three of his final 4, together with a second-round TKO over flyweight titleholder Deiveson Figueiredo. That victory earned Sandhagen his long-awaited alternative, and he’s assured that he can ship an identical end result in opposition to Dvalishvili in Las Vegas.
“I’m extra harmful than ever proper now,” Sandhagen stated forward of struggle night time. “So I may undoubtedly see me ending Merab. He’s a tricky fighter, in order that’s not going to be straightforward. When he backs up, he backs up so much, so it’s exhausting to actually join with somebody after they’re backing up. It’s so much simpler if you get to fulfill them head-on. However yeah, we’ll see. I’m actually harmful proper now. And Merab has proven that he can get caught, so if he messes up, it is going to be a brief night time.”
Greater than 50% of Sandhagen’s wins contained in the Octagon have come by way of KO, although you’d need to go all the best way again to 2021 to discover a end that didn’t come by way of a physician’s stoppage or damage.
In the meantime, Dvalishvili is coming off a fully dominant efficiency in opposition to Sean O’Malley, submitting ‘Sugar’ within the third spherical of their bantamweight championship rematch at UFC 316. The win prolonged Dvalishvili’s unbeaten streak to 13.
