Mario
Bautista is eyeing a rematch against Cory
Sandhagen if both of them win their next outings.
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Bautista is scheduled to fight Marlon Vera
at UFC 316
on June 7 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. While
Bautista isn’t looking past Vera, he is expecting a Top 5 opponent
if he wins at UFC 316. And Bautista’s first preference would be
Sandhagen, who submitted him in the first round of his UFC debut in
2019.
“Don’t want to look too far forward, but if I get past ‘Chito’ my
No. 1 pick would be against Sandhagen,” Bautista told Home of
Fight. “I would love to get that rematch back, and it would feel a
little weird if I somehow passed him in the rankings without
fighting him.”
While Bautista is now 9-2 in the UFC and riding a seven-fight
winning streak, Vera is on a two-fight skid. Meanwhile, Sandhagen
comes off a unanimous decision loss against Umar
Nurmagomedov that ended a three-fight winning streak. “The
Sandman” is now scheduled to face Deiveson
Figueiredo at
UFC Des Moines, which goes down at the Wells Fargo Arena on May
3. Bautista expects Sandhagen to keep “Deus da Guerra” at a
distance and edge out a decision victory.
“I have Sandhagen winning that fight,” he said. “I think Figgy’s
really tough… I don’t see him finishing Figgy, but I think
Sandhagen has the tools to keep it at distance, keep him away and
just win the decision there.”