Cory Sandhagen explains why he thinks UFC champions should be stripped if they don't defend their belt in 9 months

If Cory Sandhagen has his way, UFC champions would be stripped of their titles after nine months of inactivity.

Sandhagen, who replaced an injured Sterling at UFC 267, appeared on the latest episode of The MMA Hour to talk about his upcoming interim title clash against Petr Yan. Sandhagen and MMA reporter Ariel Helwani discussed how long contenders should wait for inactive champions. Helwani posited that titleholders should be given a year before the UFC takes their titles away. But according to Sandhagen:

"I don't know, man... Nine? Nine months out there? If you're not fighting within nine months, then yeah, then you should get stripped. I think a year is a really long time to keep people waiting, you know. You don't get a ton of fights, you don't get a ton of time in the sport, especially in your prime. And I think that making people wait at least a year is kind of a long time."

Sandhagen pointed out that most MMA fighters only have a short window to maximize their physical primes. With that in mind, 'The Sandman' believes that no contender should wait for a champion for more than nine months. As it stands, though, the UFC takes titles off champions on a case-to-case basis.

Watch Cory Sandhagen's interview at The MMA Hour:

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Cory Sandhagen says Aljamain Sterling shouldn't be stripped of the UFC bantamweight title

The long-awaited rematch between bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling and former titleholder Petr Yan will have to wait a little longer. That's because 'Funk Master' was not cleared to compete after he had undergone neck surgery.

However, Cory Sandhagen doesn't think Sterling deserves to be punished for being injured. The 29-year-old interim bantamweight title challenger said:

"It depends how long he really has to be out for. I think that it would be kind of a bad way to strip someone for, one, he got a really flagrant foul on him in his last fight and that's what got him the belt. But also, like the guy is actually injured."