Cory
Sandhagen doesn’t think Sean
O’Malley has consistently fought tough competition.
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Sandhagen believes one is bound to lose at some point if they
regularly take on elite opponents. Sandhagen considers only
himself, Merab
Dvalishvili and Petr Yan
worthy of that claim — and certainly not O’Malley. Sandhagen is
also confident that he can outclass O’Malley and wants to prove it
when they potentially meet.
“When me and O’Malley fight, I’ll get to show that I’m a lot better
than him,” Sandhagen said on “The Overdogs Podcast.” “Unless I get
that opportunity, I don’t really feel like arguing with the ether
of the internet about who’s better at what. I think I’ll definitely
get that opportunity to show that one of these days…I think if you
fight tough guys for long enough there’s gonna be nights when you
just don’t win… And I fought the best guys for a really long time.
And not a lot of other people in the division really get to say
that except for maybe Yan and Merab. And O’Malley’s not really one
of those guys that gets to say he’s fought all of the best of the
best of the division. I think that when he does that, he’s gonna
have off nights and he’s gonna lose. I sometimes have off nights,
and I’ve lost. That’s just how fighting works.”
O’Malley’s two biggest wins are a split decision over Petr Yan and a
knockout of Aljamain
Sterling in a title bout. While Dvalishvili was the clear title
contender when O’Malley became champ, “Suga” insisted on avenging a
loss against Marlon Vera
in his first title defense. O’Malley’s reign came to an end via a
dominant decision loss against Dvalishvili last year. Dvalishvili
went on to successfully defend his title against a previously
undefeated Umar
Nurmagomedov, widely considered the toughest contender.
Dvalishvili now puts his strap on the line in a rematch against
O’Malley at UFC 316
on June 7 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Many
consider O’Malley undeserving of the rematch with contenders like
Sandhagen waiting in the sidelines.
Meanwhile, Sandhagen had to go through the trenches to make his way
to the top. “The Sandman” lost against Sterling, Yan and
Nurmagomedov while managing to beat Vera, Rob Font,
Yadong
Song, and most recently, Deiveson
Figueiredo. A loss against Dvalishvili at UFC 316 could put
O’Malley on a collision course with Sandhagen.