Cory Sandhagen Confident in Cardio, Defensive Wrestling Ahead of UFC 320

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Much of the analysis regarding the UFC 320 co-main event involves how Cory Sandhagen will be able to combat Merab Dvalishvili’s relentless cardio and grappling.

However, Sandhagen sees things differently. He believes that he is the problem that the reigning bantamweight champion has to solve on Saturday at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

“Merab is going to have to deal with me,” Sandhagen told UFC.com. “I'm not dealing with Merab this fight. There will be some of that, and there will be some adversity that I'm sure that I'm going to have to face in this fight, but Merab is dealing with me. It's not going to be the other way around.”

During his rise to the top of the division, Dvalishvili has lived up to his moniker of “The Machine” by overwhelming foes with takedowns and positional dominance. The Georgian hasn’t been forced to rely on his standup too often, but Sandhagen knows the tone of the fight will change if he can remain upright.

“If I don't let him do those things to me, then Merab is striking with me,” he said. “Unless his striking has gotten a lot better, it’s going to be a really hard night for him.”

Sandhagen is also extremely confident in his own gas tank.

“… Not once in a fight have I felt incredibly fatigued the way that I've seen some of his other opponents be,” he added. “Not once in a fight have I been on my back for longer than 10 seconds unless it was something that I was trying to do, so you take those two things off the table, which I've proven time and time again that I'm very good at, and Merab doesn't have a lot of routes to victory, and I have a lot of them.

“It's going to be my night. I'm going to be champ.”

Sandhagen: This is My Path

Sandhagen established himself as a person of interest at bantamweight by winning seven of his first eight Octagon appearances. After dropping back-to-back outings against T.J. Dillashaw and Petr Yan — the latter in an interim title bout — in 2021, it appeared that “Sandman” had reached his peak in the division. However, after winning four of his last five fights, he has done enough to be indentified by Dvalishvili himself as a worthy title challenger.

Sandhagen is proud to have climbed the mountain yet again — with one last goal to achieve.

“I really love that it’s not too late for me,” he said. “Sometimes you lose here and there or whatever, or you're kind of just on the cusp a couple times, and then you don't get it, it kind of feels unreachable. But there's always a path, and there's always a direction to what you want. This is my path, and this is my direction.”