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‘I will go home as the winner’: Cory Sandhagen boasts before fight against Rob Font
Check out excerpts from the interview with Cory Sandhagen, the World No. 4 UFC fighter in bantamweight category.
World No. 4 UFC fighter Cory Sandhagen is set to face off against world No. 7 Rob Font in UFC fight night on Saturday in the United States. In the main event, Sandhagen and Font will take on each other in catchweight category. The co-main event will see Jessica Andrade in action against Tatiana Surarez in the women strawweight category.
Ahead of the fight between Sandhagen and Font, Sony Sports Network faciliated an interview with the World No. 4 UFC fighter in bantamweight category.
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Here are the excerpts from the interview with Cory Sandhagen
How did you get into Mixed Martial Arts? What inspired you to take up the Sport.
When I was younger, I grew up playing basketball and I grew up playing outside a lot. I was really active kid. When I turned 17, that's when I was kind of sick of basketball and that's when MMA was being played on cable television at my house. So I remember I would stay up really late and watch MMA and fell in love with it. I really wanted to learn how to actually fight.
It wasn't too much that necessarily inspired me as much as I needed another hobby to do. I was a very physical kid, I really enjoyed like pushing each other, I was aggressive and that's kind of got me into fighting because I needed a different physical outlet. As I got into MMA is when I started to realise that I was pretty decent at it and that I could do something with it, if I worked really hard.
How do you see Rob Font as an opponent? As he is ranked lower than you, will the fight be easier for you?
Rankings don't affect too much. Against Rob Font, I would say I am good everywhere. I do think that I have a lot of advantages going into this fight. What Rob does really well is puts a lot of pressure on people and it overwhelmes them physically and mentally too.
I have got really good skills in order to counter his advantages against me. So yeah, Rob is a really tough opponent and he's been around for a really long time. He's fought really good guys and beaten a lot of really good guys. I am definitely not taking him any lightly.
But I do think that I am just better than Rob and that if I stay focussed and if I work my a** off in the fight, I will go home as the winner.
In terms of height, you have an advantage over Rob Font. How much does height help in MMA?
Yeah, I won't say a huge factor. But I would say what a lot of people don't realise is when I get paired up with someone, is the guys that are good from the outside like Rob Font. They do fight really good from the outside but that's because typically, they are fighting people that are the same size as them or shorter than them. So they get their strengths of being able to fight from the outside. It no longer exists when you fight a guy that is built like me and has range and moves his feet really well.
Guys that win in the past that way, don't get to win against me. They can try to find some other way to win. So yeah, I do think height is going to matter.
Who do you rate as the best fighter among your contemporaries?
I think Alex Volkanovski is a guy that I watch a lot. He has got it all, honestly. He has got the striking, he's got the take downs, he's got the takedown defence and he's got really got jujitsu like...Volkanovski in my opinion, is about as close to all the way needed up as you can get.
I really like Israel[Israel Adesanya] and I really like their coach too whoever comes up with their gameplan, does a phenomenal job of being able to really breakdown opponents.
The guys that do really, really well in this sport are the guys that are capable of changing their strategy according to who they are fighting. Israel and Volkanovski are the two best strategists in the sport.
Aljamain Sterling is the current Bantamweight champion, when do you think of dethroning him and becoming the new champion?
I hope so, I don't think too far down the chain, to be honest. MMA changes so frequently, that it is really hard to be like "Oh! I will fight this guy in six months" because that guy can be matched up with someone else or he can lose.
I definitely want to fight Aljamain if he is the champ after this and I definitely wanna fight O'Malley if he is the champ after this too. I think me and Aljamain are really good match ups. I think a lot of people want to see Aljamain lose and I think I could be the guy to get my revenge and redemption.
I got to get past Rob first, I got to stay focussed on that. And then after that, I am definitely planning to fight them both.[Aljamain and O'Malley]
Watch the LIVE coverage of UFC Fight Night- Sandhagen vs Font on Sony Sports Ten 2(English), Sony Sports Ten 3(Hindi) and Sony Sports Ten 4( Tamil & Telugu) channels at 6.30am IST on 6th August 2023.
