Exclusive: Cory Sandhagen comes clean on hilarious brand manager gag, talks inspiration for spoof content

Cory Sandhagen has started injecting a fresh dose of personality into his fight buildup. His recent videos include satire-based, self-deprecating humor, which has become a quick fan favorite.

Sandhagen recently confirmed in an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda MMA's James Lynch that he's pretending to have hired a “brand manager” to help him chase UFC gold. The new skits are part of his “Stupid Fight Vlogs” series which feature skits such as the 32-year-old taking fashion advice from a fictional hype man who wants to mold him into a marketable star.

Sandhagen says he grew up on shows like Workaholics, The Office, and Summer Heights High, and this is just his take on dry and quirky humor. Speaking in the exclusive interview with Sportskeeda MMa, Sandhagen said:

“Yeah, that’s obviously a joke. But yeah, I wanted to do something on my YouTube that wasn’t just vlogs because vlogs bore the shit out of me. I just wanted to do something a little bit more fun… I really like just kind of writing and coming up with ideas and stuff, so I just came up with a bunch of really stupid ideas, and that’s what we did for vlogs. So yeah, brand manager was one of them.”

He added:

“I really liked Summer Heights High growing up. I really liked Workaholics, The Office, stuff like that. That’s kind of my sense of humor, real dry and real like that. So yeah, it wasn’t really anyone else. I guess it was just kind of growing up on those types of TV shows. I’d prefer my life if it was just training, to be honest with you. I don’t really get bored training. The second I start to feel bored, I just start a new training project, practicing a new skill or technique or going down some other rabbit hole.”

Check out Sportskeeda MMA's exclusive interview with Cory Sandhagen below:

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Cory Sandhagen says frustration cost him the Umar Nurmagomedov fight

Cory Sandhagen recently owned up to a misstep that may have cost him the fight against Umar Nurmagomedov. Reflecting on his loss to Nurmagomedov, Sandhagen believes it was frustration, not skill, that ultimately let him down.

He entered the fight expecting difficulty landing clean shots, but when those struggles surfaced, they rattled him. Instead of sticking to his strengths and trusting his instincts, he overcorrected and tried to force openings that weren’t there.

Speaking about the mistakes in an interview with MMA Fighting, Sandhagen said:

“The me and Umar fight, I feel like frustration lost me that fight a little bit. I kind of went in with the framework, and with the perspective that he was going to be very hard to hit. Instead of just being like ‘Oh that’s something to expect,’ it frustrated me more because I was like, but I’ve trained so hard in order to make it so I can hit a difficult guy and since it’s still not working, it’s making me frustrated. It kind of spiraled from there."

Check out Cory Sandhagen's comments below (11:20):