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Cory Sandhagen will definitely be an interested spectator as Henry Cejudo and Aljamain Sterling face off at UFC 288. The bantamweight contender put himself into the title conversation at bantamweight with a win over Marlon 'Chito' Vera.
He'll now be waiting to see if Henry 'Triple C' Cejudo captures bantamweight gold at UFC 288 in his comeback bout or Sterling defends it. Speaking on the fight, 'The Sandman' had some interesting thoughts.
In an interview with The Schmo, Sandhagen was asked what an ideal 2023 would look like. He replied:
"A perfect scenario is something weird happens and I get to fight for the belt. Who knows, Cejudo Sterling might have a really close fight. Or something weird might happen like in Sterling and Yan, they might have to rematch in a few months and then O'Malley won't have anyone, so I'm not really sure. I guess I wanted three fights this year. I want to go with the smarter decision, which sometimes means fighting less, so yeah, we're just going to have to see how this Cejudo Sterling thing goes." [3: 52 onwards]
Check out the entire interview here:
Cory Sandhagen content to face another contender, will wait for Henry Cejudo-Aljamain Sterling result to decide
As he stated in the interview, 'The Sandman' appears to be content waiting for the results of UFC 288 before making a final decision on who he fights next. After his last outing, he called out Merab Dvalishvili, the no.1 ranked bantamweight.
Watch as Cory Sandhagen calls out Merab Dvalishvili:
This is particularly interesting, as the title picture is very confusing. There is speculation that Sterling, even if he wins, will move up to featherweight. Cejudo may do the same and so, a bantamweight title fight, irrespective of who wins, may be delayed for Sandhagen.
It's also been known that Sterling and no.1 contender Merab Dvalishvili are close friends and won't fight each other. As a result, the title picture has gotten pretty murky at 135 lbs. Regardless, fans are likely to get a lot of clarity as to where the division heads once UFC 288 wraps up.
