Cory Sandhagen isn’t just evolving—he’s reinventing himself. From the quiet kid in Aurora with a fascination for movement to a top-tier UFC bantamweight, ‘The Sandman’ has become a calculated storm in the Octagon.

You might know Sandhagen for his slicing elbows and sniper-like precision. Remember the iconic flying-knee knockout against Frankie Edgar? But behind every fighter stands a mastermind.  So let’s pull back the curtain and find out who’s guiding Sandhagen’s rise from dangerous to downright deadly!

Who is Cory Sanghagen’s coach?

Ahead of his clash against Umar Nurmagomedov, Cory Sandhagen added another weapon to his arsenal of preparation. Trevor Wittman. The name alone carries weight. The man behind legends like Rose Namajunas, Kamaru Usman, and Justin Gaethje now finds himself in Sandhagen’s corner.

In an interview with MMA Junkie at the time, ‘The Sandman’ revealed, “Working with Trevor has been great, he’s super impressive, he really knows how to work with the athletes on the technical strategic side of things, I haven’t met anyone better, honestly. Yeah, all three of those guys are going to be in my corner (Trevor Wittman, Carrington Banks, and Ryan Hall)”

Wittman is a boxing and MMA coach who was forced to retire from boxing after being diagnosed with a hyperinflated lung. He founded T’s K.O. Fight Club in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, and now trains Sandhagen among other veteran fighters. He is also a part of ONX Sports and has won awards for his coaching.

In a video on his YouTube channel, Sandhagen showed his fighting vlog and training for the day. Here he can be seen training with Wittman, and he said a lot of good things about his coach. He said, “Working with Trevor is awesome, he is really good about like just, repping, and repping and repping certain movements.” He said that Wittman is so good at making him practice the smallest moves that it becomes muscle memory, and he can execute the move perfectly inside the octagon.

Sandhagen is good at both orthodox and southpaw styles of fighting, which keeps his opponents guessing about his next move. Apart from that, he also trains with Elevation Fight Team.

Cory Sandhagen’s gym and teammates

While Wittman fine-tunes the finer points, Sandhagen still sharpens his edge with the Elevation Fight Team—a Colorado-based stable bursting with talent and tenacity.

The team includes a stacked lineup: Neil Magny, Curtis Blaydes, Justin Gaethje, and other standouts like Eliot Marshall, Vinnie Lopez, and Peter Straub. It’s not just a gym—it’s a crucible where styles blend, egos check out, and steel sharpens steel.

Overseeing the operation are coaches like Carrington Banks, Christian Allen, and Justin Houghton. Each brings a different flavor, from wrestling to striking, making Sandhagen’s training as layered as his fight style. Whether he’s switching stances mid-fight or countering takedowns with surgical precision, you can bet that work started back in Denver.

For Sandhagen, loyalty and evolution go hand-in-hand. He didn’t just jump ship to train with Wittman—he expanded his arsenal by adding one of MMA’s sharpest minds to his existing powerhouse team. Interestingly, ‘The Sandman’ not only trains with coaches but is also a renowned coach himself. The top bantamweight fighter trains in his gym called HAMA and even makes videos for training fighters. 

 ‘The Sandman’ is a coach himself!

Long before the bright lights of the UFC, Cory Sandhagen was teaching at High Altitude Martial Arts (HAMA) in Aurora, Colorado. At just 17, he opened his own training center. And when he wasn’t training, he was hitting the books—earning a psychology degree to better understand both the mind and the fighter.

“I moved to Boulder to get my Psychology degree,” he once shared, “and studied at Easton BJJ in Boulder until I moved back down here.” That educational background? It bleeds into his coaching. He doesn’t just teach punches—he reads people. He sees their potential before they do.

His goal at HAMA is simple yet powerful: make students believe they can surpass their limits. “I want people to realize how special this place is,” he said. “Whatever goal they come up with, they will surpass it with HAMA.”

Even the legendary AKA gym once took notice. On a podcast with Big John McCarthy, Josh Thomson recalled a time when Sandhagen pieced up two solid wrestlers during a sparring session—before anyone knew his name. “Who the hell is that little guy right there?” the AKA guys reportedly asked, shocked. That “little guy” was already a monster in the making.

Now, ‘The Sandman’ is gearing up for a clash against Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC on ESPN 67. With his teammates and some of the sharpest minds in the MMA world at his side, will he be able to pull out another highlight reel finish this time around? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!