Cory Sandhagen thought he ended a sparring partner’s life after leaving him vomiting from a knee to the top.
UFC bantamweight contender Cory Sandhagen is in ‘war mode’ ahead of his return to the cage against Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC Des Moines in May. Sandhagen returns after suffering a unanimous decision loss to former title challenger Umar Nurmagomedov last 12 months in Abu Dhabi.
Sandhagen is often called probably the most dangerous strikers within the UFC bantamweight division; earning wild knockouts against the likes of Marlon Moraes and Frankie Edgar. His flying knee knockout of Edgar was a ‘Knockout of the Yr’ candidate in 2021.
Sandhagen is laser-focused on Figueiredo and dealing towards a possible title shot. In a recent sparring session with certainly one of his teammates, Sandhagen’s intensity was overloaded.
‘Gym Bully’ Cory Sandhagen admitted he thought he killed a recent sparring partner
During a recent appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, Sandhagen explained how he left a recent sparring partner vomiting after landing a brutal knee.
“I could be a gym bully slightly bit,” Sandhagen admitted. “We recuperate by beating one another up, and that dude, that’s actually certainly one of my principal training partners and a man I coach pretty closely…Connor [Owens] had a fight coming up, so I wasn’t going easy on him on that day…
“I swear to god, I had a moment where I assumed that I had killed someone and it really scared me because after that happened…after I looked and saw straight blood. I assumed ‘Do I call the cops or rush him to the hospital immediately?’, and I see that he was laughing and my brain didn’t know what to do.”
It seems that Connor Owens, an amateur MMA fighter, drank beet juice before his spar with Sandhagen and that’s what he was vomiting as an alternative of blood. But Sandhagen had an instantaneous somber response to landing the knee on Owens and feared for the worst.
Luckily, Owens stays on course for his skilled debut at Fury FC 103 later this month. Sandhagen faces Figueiredo just weeks afterward May third.
Cory Sandhagen is knocking on the door of a title shot entering UFC Des Moines
As Sandhagen prepares for UFC Des Moines, he has the possibility to earn himself a title shot in defeating Figueiredo. UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili and Sean O’Malley could clash in a rematch later this 12 months, with top contenders like Sandhagen waiting within the wings.
Dvalishvili broke Georges St-Pierre’s all-time UFC record for takedowns in his most up-to-date win over Nurmagomedov. He earned the belt by outpointing O’Malley at UFC 306 last September.
UFC CEO Dana White recently hinted that the Dvalishvili vs. O’Malley rematch was the following bantamweight title fight booking. But as of this writing, nothing has been announced by the promotion.
Sandhagen is ramping up the intensity ahead of his Figueiredo clash, and he’s training with a chip on his shoulder after suffering certainly one of his lone UFC defeats.
