"It is quite short" - Tom Aspinall laughs off correction after joking about Cory Sandhagen's height

Tom Aspinall recently took a playful dig at Cory Sandhagen while discussing the American fighter's upcoming matchup inside the octagon.

Sandhagen is set to challenge Merab Dvalishvili for the bantamweight gold in the co-main event of UFC 320 on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. In a recent episode of Fight Lab with Adam Catterall and Paul Craig on TNT Fight Sports' YouTube channel, Aspinall highlighted Sandhagen's height in comparison to Dvalishvili. Despite being 5' 11", the 33-year-old was referred to as short by the British:

''I think what [Sandhagen] does really well is his distance management. He's 5'11''. Still a short fellow, how much taller is he than Merab? five inches, I would say just to eye measure.''

Catterall jumped in to interrupt and said:

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''Can I just point out 5'11'' is not short man.''

In response, Aspinall humorously said:

''No it isn’t, but you know it is quite short.''

Check out their conversation below (via Red Corner MMA X post):

After failing to win the interim 135-pound belt against Petr Yan at UFC 267 in 2021, Sandhagen put on a three-fight win streak before losing to Umar Nurmagomedov via unanimous decision at UFC Abu Dhabi last year. However, he got back in the win column by securing a second-round knockout win over two-time flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC Des Moines in May of this year.

As for Aspinall, he is now scheduled to defend his undisputed heavyweight throne against Ciryl Gane in the main event of UFC 321 on Oct. 25 at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. The then-interim champion repeatedly called for a title unification bout with Jon Jones, who retired in June after seemingly avoiding a fight with the 32-year-old.

Tom Aspinall discusses UFC 320 co-main event

In the aforementioned Fight Lab episode, Tom Aspinall offers his thoughts on the Merab Dvalishvili vs. Cory Sandhagen matchup at UFC 320's co-main event.

The reigning UFC heavyweight champion cited Sandhagen's striking abilities:

''So what [Sandhagen] does really well is he makes the angles which is going to be really interesting to see how Merab gets on with that because he'll hit and he'll switch the southpaw body kick. Something else that he does really well is he'll switch and he'll do the flying knee...So there's a there's a lot of facets to Cory Sandhagen's game. It's just can he do that when this crazy person is going at him for 25 minutes? That's going to be the hardest thing for him.'' [20:47 of the video]

About the author

Swagat is a dynamic MMA writer with a total experience of a little less than a year, which includes time in retail and sports journalism. He holds an MBA degree.

Swagat fell in love with the sport after watching the iconic grudge match between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier at UFC 182 in early 2015. Nate Diaz holds a special place in his heart for the Stockton native’s entertaining fan-friendly style and ability to deliver exciting fights regardless of the opponent.

In terms of rule changes in MMA, Swagat advocates for making scores public after each round, adding transparency to judging decisions.

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