Cory Sandhagen Believes Jose Aldo’s UFC 301 Win Insufficient for Title Shot Against Sean O’Malley: “There’s Too Many Good Guys”

UFC dropping a major bomb with its Abu Dhabi announcement has everyone talking. The event, featuring a 5-round bout between Cory Sandhagen and Umar Nurmagomedov is going to tear the roof off the place. But it’s not the Sandman’s fight that has become a subject of debate online. It’s his opinion on Jose Aldo’s future in the UFC!

Speaking to Ariel Helwani on his The MMA Hour podcast, the 32-year-old got real, divulging how the returning Jose Aldo’s UFC 301 triumph was inadequate to get the veteran a shot at the title.

Aldo’s performance shocked the world as he humbled Jonathan Martinez, outclassing the younger fighter in all three rounds. However, it looks like Sandhagen is not that impressed. Speaking to Helwani, he gave props to Aldo for his performance. But he believes that such a performance was not enough to get him a title shot against Sean O’Malley. He said,

“No way, I love Aldo, man. Aldo is the absolute man but you don’t get to comeback from retirement and then beat a guy way down in the rankings and then just fight for the belt like…There’s too many good guys in the division for that to be the case.” 

The #2 bantamweight indeed has a point here. Despite the fact that Aldo showed his skill, and proved he’s still got it, a title shot against the champ would be a jump too far at this point. Well, Aldo retired in 2022. And while this comeback has been rather legendary, there are a lot of fighters ahead of him in the line for that shot at UFC gold.

Take a look at rankings and you’ll get Sandhagen’s point.

Besides him, Merab Dvalishvili, Petr Yan, etc all want a piece of the action, a shot at the belt and it makes perfect sense. The Georgian is the #1 contender now, the next in line to challenge O’Malley for the gold, and the Siberian has been yearning for a rematch ever since his controversial loss against the Montana native in UFC 280 back in 2022.

The Sandman is not wrong. However, with Sandhagen being offered his wanted matchup with the Dagestani, the American also opened up about exploiting a chink in Nurmagomedov’s armor.

Sandhagen to exploit Nurmagomedov’s vulnerability at UFC Abu Dhabi

Bantamweight contenders, Cory Sandhagen and Umar Nurmagomedov will finally touch the gloves inside the cage in Abu Dhabi in a 5-round banger scheduled for August. Even though this bout was booked last year, Nurmagomedov’s untimely injury scrapped the matchup until the organization decided to rebook it on August 3.

With UFC finally giving him what he wants, ‘The Sandman’ couldn’t contain his excitement. Speaking to Demetrious Johnson aka ‘The Mighty Mouse’ on his YouTube channel, Sandhagen mentioned the AKA fighter’s apparent weakness; his gas tank.

“From a strategic standpoint, I really want to fight Umar in a five-round fight because in his last (fight) he was breathing heavily. He was working hard though so I’ll give him that, it was well within the realm of reality for him to be that tired.” 

Exploiting his opponent’s soft underbelly, taking the fight to the Dagestani, and imposing his will on him, Sandhagen plans on wiping that 0 off of his resume, handing him his first defeat in the UFC. But if there’s something about that Dagestani soil, because that 0 is harder to erase that one could fathom.