Cory Sandhagen is brimming with confidence forward of his title tilt with Merab Dvalishvili.
After years of preventing his manner up the bantamweight division, ‘Sandman’ will finally have his shot at undisputed gold when he challenges Dvalishvili for the 135-pound crown within the UFC 320 co-main occasion on Saturday night time.
Sandhagen goes into the bout as a winner in three of his final 4, together with a second-round TKO over flyweight titleholder Deiveson Figueiredo. That victory earned Sandhagen his long-awaited alternative, and he’s assured that he can ship the same end result in opposition to Dvalishvili in Las Vegas.
“I’m extra harmful than ever proper now,” Sandhagen said ahead of fight night. “So I may positively see me ending Merab. He’s a troublesome fighter, in order that’s not going to be simple. When he backs up, he backs up so much, so it’s laborious to actually join with somebody once they’re backing up. It’s so much simpler once you get to satisfy them head-on. However yeah, we’ll see. I’m actually harmful proper now. And Merab has proven that he can get caught, so if he messes up, will probably be a brief night time.”
Greater than 50% of Sandhagen’s wins contained in the Octagon have come by way of KO, although you’d should go all the best way again to 2021 to discover a end that didn’t come by way of a health care provider’s stoppage or damage.
In the meantime, Dvalishvili is coming off an absolutely dominant performance in opposition to Sean O’Malley, submitting ‘Sugar’ within the third spherical of their bantamweight championship rematch at UFC 316. The win prolonged Dvalishvili’s unbeaten streak to 13.
