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Cory Sandhagen put Sean O'Malley on blast after finding out his title defense plans should he defeat Aljamain Sterling to become the new bantamweight champion at UFC 292.
While speaking to the media during his availability ahead of this weekend's event, 'The Sandman' shared his thoughts on 'Sugar' possibly pushing for a rematch with Marlon Vera for his first title defense should they both win their respective fights. He mentioned that it would be a weak move by O'Malley because there are other deserving contenders.
He said:
"That's some like weak sauce, man. Ain't that some weak sauce? You wanna fight the guy that other people are beating? I don't know, that kinda bothers me about the way that O'Malley thinks a little bit." [6:30 - 6:42]
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Cory Sandhagen also mentioned that he believes it's an issue that is prevalent throughout the sport. He questioned the thought process behind selecting favorable matchups rather than the top contender to cement a champion's status as the best in the division, saying:
"That's gonna ruin some stuff, man. Don't you wanna when you win the belt say that you're the actual best because you fought the best guys? That's my approach to the whole thing." [6:50 - 7:00]
It will be interesting to see what the landscape of the bantamweight division will look like after UFC 292.
Check out the full video:
When did Cory Sandhagen last compete?
Cory Sandhagen has been on an impressive run as of late and is among the top contenders in the UFC bantamweight division.
'The Sandman' last competed at UFC Nashville, where he earned a unanimous decision win over Rob Font. What made the win more impressive is that he revealed that he continued to compete after tearing his tricep. The bout was contested at a 140lb catchweight as a result of Font stepping in on short notice after Umar Nurmagomedov was forced to withdraw from the event due to an injury.
The win over Font extended Cory Sandhagen's winning streak to three consecutive wins, which also includes a split decision win over Marlon Vera and a fourth-round TKO win over Song Yadong.
