Cory
Sandhagen (17-4) believes bookmakers did not decide the odds of
his upcoming clash against Umar
Nurmagomedov (17-0) based on the caliber of the two
fighters.
Sandhagen will confront Nurmagomedov in the main event at UFC Abu
Dhabi on Aug. 3 in what has been billed as a No. 1 bantamweight
contender matchup. Sandhagen is a +215 underdog going into the
fight against Nurmagomedov, who is a -265 favorite.
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While Sandhagen doesn’t like the disparity in the odds, he isn’t
much bothered by it. “Sandman” believes much of Nurmagomedov’s
favorite status has to do with the success of the latter’s
teammate, Islam
Makhachev, who recently retained his lightweight title with a
Round 5 submission over Dustin
Poirier at UFC 302.
Sandhagen believes the stellar success of the Dagestani contingent
influenced the odds for his upcoming clash against Nurmagomedov.
While Sandhagen says the hype behind the Dagestani brigade is
justified, he is against building an invincible image of any
particular fighter.
“Yeah, I did see that. Yeah, that’s OK. Islam’s doing well, that
definitely has a lot to do with it,” Sandhagen told Sportskeeda. “Just like them being
intertwined. It’s still like the big Dagestani narrative is still
going on and they are incredible fighters too. There’s like
definitely a lot of truth to the narrative but making them sound
unbeatable is definitely not a true part of the narrative… Yeah, I
don’t like that too much. Usually I think I’m the favorite but I’m
OK with being a dog every once in a while.”
While Sandhagen has shown grappling development over time, the
elite striker’s fight against Nurmagomedov is expected to be a
textbook striker vs. wrestler matchup. While it is ideal to train
with partners with a similar style to that of your upcoming
opponent, Sandhagen hasn’t had much success finding Dagestani
training partners, owing to the camaraderie they share with each
other. However, Sandhagen has trained with grapplers from
Tajikistan and Azerbaijan, who have been given him an inkling of
the Dagestani style.
“It’s hard cause they’re all homies, they’re all buds. So when I
reach out to friends like, ‘Hey, can that guy come out and train,
is he a good training partner? That’s like, ‘Yeah, but they’re
friends with Umar or they’re friends with so and so who knows Umar
and so they’re kind of buds,” Sandhagen said. “So it’s really hard
to get those types of looks but I will probably have Muhammad
Naimov hopefully come out… And he is Tajikistan, which is different
than Dagestan so… We had some guys from Tajikistan pop in,
Azerbaijan hop in, so I get the look. It’s a different style but
it’s not fundamentally super different. They just have different
attacks and things that they do a little bit different that they do
than the American style of wrestling.