Cory Sandhagen Sees Clear Path To Title & Puts 135 Peers On Notice

Following his breathtaking knockout of the legendary Frankie Edgar at UFC Fight Night: Overeem vs. Volkov (UFC Vegas 18), Cory Sandhagen sees no debate on what should be next for him.

Coming into UFC Vegas 18, Cory Sandhagen made it clear that a win over Frankie Edgar would put him at the front of the line for a bantamweight world title shot. As eloquently as Sandhagen made this argument, nothing could get that message across clearer than when he put Edgar’s lights out with a picture-perfect flying knee 28 seconds into the very first round.

After pulling off an early nominee for Knockout of the Year, Sandhagen cannot imagine being paired with anyone other than the world champion for his next bout.

“It’s gotta be the winner of Yan and Sterling, right?” Sandhagen asked rhetorically in a post-fight media scrum. “I heard Yan do an interview talking about how he wants to fight T.J. after. And T.J’s coming off some of the most serious PEDs that you can do in this sport. That seems disrespectful to the sport. And you know, I’ve been working. I’ve been working these last two years. I’m ready for the belt. I think I’m better than Yan. So if he wins, I want Yan.

“Same with Sterling, too, though. I’m a different animal. You guys have seen it in the last two fights. I’m a different animal since that fight with Sterling. I’m grateful that he got to teach me a lesson. But the next time we fight, I’m gonna hurt Aljamain. And I want to fight the winner of that fight in July or whenever they want, really.”

Sandhagen is referring to his loss to Aljamain Sterling at UFC 250 last year that saw Sterling pick up the submission victory in under two minutes. Sterling’s performance is being rewarded with the next crack at Petr Yan at UFC 259, and now with back-to-back Performance of the Night wins over Marlon Moraes and Frankie Edgar, Sandhagen expects to be rewarded in kind as well.

“But no, man, I gotta be next for the title,” Sandhagen asserted. “There’s no one else even in the conversation, I don’t think, especially after a performance like that.”

If Cory Sandhagen does receive a title shot next, who would you rather see him fight: Petr Yan or Aljamain Sterling?