News Cory Sandhagen vs Umar Nurmagomedov set to headline UFC Abu Dhabi on August 3

[moosaev]

I love how citing Dana White saying "we can't get a kid a fight" as proof of anything, as if Dana White isn't a promoter and doesn't say these things for many fighters lol.

Which fighters are ducking him?

Considering he's fighting someone who should be the #1 contender, I'd say that he has hardly been a victim of severe ducking.

Wasn't just Dana, it was literally everyone that echoed that. And Umar does not strike me as a liar, those dudes are pretty upfront about stuff. If he says everyone's avoiding him and that's why he can't get a fight, i believe him.

 

[Kb7]

"If Sandhagen wants the shot, he needs to not tear his tricep yet still dominate his opponent across the entire bout"

"Fighters like Sandhagen are really doing themselves a disservice by getting during a fight"

FTFY. You're acting like Cory lay-n-prayed Rob Font on a whim.

His fight with Vera also wasn't the greatest showing, even though he won Vera still got a title shot before him. Sandhagen is a good fighter, but he needs to do something to standout from the rest of the cookie cutter fighters. Winning just isn't enough at this point. Florian figured that out early in his career and Jon Fitch figured out late.

Look at the state of the MMA community, they illegally stream every single event even when it's a amazing card, what makes you think someone will be clamoring for Sandhagen to get a title shot or even purchase anything that pertains to him? I can't emphasize this enough.

Winning isn't enough.

 

[Safton]

His fight with Vera also wasn't the greatest showing, even though he won Vera still got a title shot before him. Sandhagen is a good fighter, but he needs to do something to standout from the rest of the cookie cutter fighters. Winning just isn't enough at this point. Florian figured that out early in his career and Jon Fitch figured out late.

Look at the state of the MMA community, they illegally stream every single event even when it's a amazing card, what makes you think someone will be clamoring for Sandhagen to get a title shot or even purchase anything that pertains to him? I can't emphasize this enough.

Winning isn't enough.

What are you talking about? Sandhagen has more highlight reel finishes than a lot of Bantamweights the UFC is pushing and some of the flashiest that the division has seen in recent history lmao

The Vera fight was boring? By what standard? He spent the first two rounds GnPing Chito's head through the canvas with hellbows and then the last three picking him apart on the feet. That was not a boring fight unless your standard for "not boring" is "finish or bust" or a Poirier/Holloway-esque war.

 

[Kb7]

What are you talking about? Sandhagen has more highlight reel finishes than a lot of Bantamweights the UFC is pushing and some of the flashiest that the division has seen in recent history lmao

The Vera fight was boring? By what standard? He spent the first two rounds GnPing Chito's head through the canvas with hellbows and then the last three picking him apart on the feet. That was not a boring fight unless your standard for "not boring" is "finish or bust" or a Poirier/Holloway-esque war.

You're only as good as your last fight.

 

[Safton]

You're only as good as your last fight.

By all means, shift the goalposts further.

 

[Kb7]

By all means, shift the goalposts further.

I know you don't want to hear it, but his last fights were boring and with recent events like 300 and the way UFC has been doing their matchmaking Sandhagen will no need to not just win, but a win with something standing out.

 

[Safton]

I know you don't want to hear it, but his last fights were boring and with recent events like 300 and the way UFC has been doing their matchmaking Sandhagen will no need to not just win, but a win with something standing out.

First it was "Cory is so boring, he needs to do more than just win his last fight sucked".

When I pointed out that he injured himself for that last fight and had no other option, it was "Oh yeah well the fight before it was boring too! He's gotta do more!"

So I pointed out that the Vera fight was not boring by any stretch of the imagination and Sandhagen has multiple highlight reel finishes and intense striking wars on his resume, so you went back to "Well that doesn't matter because only the last fight counts" and presumably ignoring the fact that Sandhagen was injured during said last fight.

The only one who "doesn't want to hear" what the other person is saying is you, evidently. Make up your mind about what your narrative is going to be and stick with it, please.

 

[Kb7]

First it was "Cory is so boring, he needs to do more than just win his last fight sucked".

When I pointed out that he injured himself for that last fight and had no other option, it was "Oh yeah well the fight before it was boring too! He's gotta do more!"

So I pointed out that the Vera fight was not boring by any stretch of the imagination and Sandhagen has multiple highlight reel finishes and intense striking wars on his resume, so you went back to "Well that doesn't matter because only the last fight counts" and presumably ignoring the fact that Sandhagen was injured during said last fight.

The only one who "doesn't want to hear" what the other person is saying is you, evidently. Make up your mind about what your narrative is going to be and stick with it, please.

I am. Sandhagen needs to something other than just win. That's my opinion in the only way he gets a title shot with a win over Umar. At this point I could the UFC making Jose Aldo vs O'Malley.

 

[HuskySamoan]

Rankings are fake as per sherdog, you shouldn't be so emotionally invested over them

Regardless, Umars best win my opinion is still the PFL win over Saidyokub. Whether talking rankings or just good wins, it's clear he got a free path almost entirely devoid of challenging opposition. This criticism can be made fairly and you're probably a shill with a sack over your eyes if you can't see it. That said, I still think Umar beats Sandhagen and has a real solid chance vs Sean/Merab.

 

[Safton]

I am. Sandhagen needs to something other than just win. That's my opinion in the only way he gets a title shot with a win over Umar. At this point I could the UFC making Jose Aldo vs O'Malley.

Sandhagen is doing more than just win, he's winning on a streak and impressively. Even when he was literally down an arm in the very first round of a fight he still dominated his opponent. Prior to that he had plenty of finishes, some of which the UFC likes to use in their highlight reels.

Cory isn't really a point-fighter.

 

[Bobby Boulders]

I just don't get why everyone involved is so insistent on Sandhagen in particular fighting down against #9 while being ranked #2 on a 3 fight winning streak and totally already qualified for a title shot

Yes I'm a Sandhagen fan worried that he might get outgrappled and lose the chance to ever try for the title again, but I really don't understand why they're so insistent on this specific matchup. Chito and Song Yadong just lost, why not have them fight down?

Bc if Umar wins he will jump all of them, and be the only fighter in the top half of the rankings not coming off a loss. They're smoke and mirrors-ing him to the title.

 

[Pious Augustus]

Regardless, Umars best win my opinion is still the PFL win over Saidyokub. Whether talking rankings or just good wins, it's clear he got a free path almost entirely devoid of challenging opposition. This criticism can be made fairly and you're probably a shill with a sack over your eyes if you can't see it. That said, I still think Umar beats Sandhagen and has a real solid chance vs Sean/Merab.

I remember you saying his last opponent is a tougher test than most of the division, before the fight that was.

 

[El Panteron]

And to people saying it’s an undeserving fight for Umar being ranked 9. Remember that O’Malley was ranked 10th and got to fight #1 Petr Yan, got a controversial decision, and then took the #1 spot leapfrogging everyone.

And as the saying goes, two wrongs absolutely make a right. Wait...

 

[El Panteron]

What are you talking about? Sandhagen has more highlight reel finishes than a lot of Bantamweights the UFC is pushing and some of the flashiest that the division has seen in recent history lmao

The Vera fight was boring? By what standard? He spent the first two rounds GnPing Chito's head through the canvas with hellbows and then the last three picking him apart on the feet. That was not a boring fight unless your standard for "not boring" is "finish or bust" or a Poirier/Holloway-esque war.

Only reason the fight wasn't that great is Vera was doing fuck all to try and win (and a judge still somehow thought he did it).

 

[Safton]

Only reason the fight wasn't that great is Vera was doing fuck all to try and win (and a judge still somehow thought he did it).

Just Vera being Vera. Low activity at the best of times and if he tends to fall into a rut if he's getting outhustled. The same thing was happening in the Cruz, Font, and even the Edgar fights... until he was able to find the big shot(s) that changed the trajectory of them. Against a higher level of competition those opportunities don't present themselves and Chito gets exposed as the fairly middle-of-the-road guy that he is.

 

[Dirty Frank]

Uh, having him fight guys like Mario would be a test.

It's easy to look good when you're fighting really low level comp, which is only what Umar has faced outside of Raoni, who is just ok. Mario ran through Kelleher quicker than Umar did.

No reason at all why Umar shouldn't have had to work his way up the rankings. Instead he's somehow 9th with no ranked wins and coming off having to hold down a regional guy with shit grappling who chinned him lol.

Helax. You'll see soon enough. If he's as shitty as you think he is, you should not be throwing a hissy fit. You should be rejoicing because everyone will finally see bum Umar getting exposed.

But obviously, you're merely scared and/or annoyed at the fact you'd have to see another one of them Dagis break your precious heart time and time and time and time again.

 

[Dirty Frank]

No, Umar only wanted the top fighters and none of them wanted to fight an unranked guy as that would have done nothing for them.

You conveniently forget that they see any fight with said unranked fighter a HIGH RISK given the level of skill that they'd be up against.

 

[Dirty Frank]

This is a great fucking fight. And what's even better is that I can easily see the agony and despair of haters scrambling for reasons to discredit this fight, knowing another bugaboo of theirs is a-coming. I can actually feel the fear oozing out of my computer screen.
Tasty!

 

[blaseblase]

His fight with Vera also wasn't the greatest showing, even though he won Vera still got a title shot before him.

Lol he dominated Vera, that title shot was bullshit. The fact Vera got a title shot is evidence Sandhagen should be fighting for a title.

 

[xhaydenx]

Helax. You'll see soon enough. If he's as shitty as you think he is, you should not be throwing a hissy fit. You should be rejoicing because everyone will finally see bum Umar getting exposed.

But obviously, you're merely scared and/or annoyed at the fact you'd have to see another one of them Dagis break your precious heart time and time and time and time again.

What? Bro, I never said Umar was shitty. Where you get that from?

Don't get how you think I'm scared of him breaking my heart -- whatever that means. I think he either has champ potential or at the very least he'll be top 3 for a long time, probably until he retires. I just don't want to see him just leapfrog and fight Cory who is #2, I want to see him fight everyone. There were plenty of good matchups they could have done through the top 15 that I would have liked a lot. I want all the fights.

Would have been way better if Cory fought Figgy or someone high ranked now while Merab fought Suga and Umar fought say Kyler/Chito/Aldo/Song, etc.

Then we could have likely had Cory fight next for the belt while Umar beat one of those 4 and then had another high ranked matchup waiting for him before a title shot.

Instead we get this boring ass matchmaking that isn't fair to the lower ranks in the division, and is just gonna kill off either Umar or Cory as a contender right now.

And we ain't gonna get those good match ups because if Umar beats Cory, he'll be 2nd or 3rd and he isn't gonna say yes if someone ranked 15-5 calls him out in the same way he's getting Cory.

Shit, unfair matchmaking robbing us of potential bangers. I'm not into that.