“Cory Sandhaegn is the most deserving.” After defending his bantamweight championship belt for the second time, Merab Dvalishvili claimed that the #4 bantamweight contender, Cory Sandhagen, should be the next title challenger. Needless to say, the callout was what ‘Sandman’ was actually waiting for. Following his TKO win over Deiveson Figueiredo, he wanted nothing but a title shot. However, defeating ‘The Machine’ is no easy feat. Even the strong contenders like Umar Nurmagomedov and Sean O’Malley couldn’t win against the Georgian champion. 

Dvalishvili defeated the former bantamweight champion, Sean O’Malley, on two different occasions – UFC 306 and UFC 316 – one of which ended with Dvalishvili’s ‘Machine Choke’. On top of that, the Georgian outwrestled Umar Nurmagomedov at UFC 311 and defended his belt for the first time. These recent fights showcased Dvalishvili’s impressive cardiovascular strength. And Sandhagen has no choice but to learn from O’Malley and Nurmagomedov’s mistakes. 

During a recent appearance in an interview with MMA Fighting’s Damon Martin, ‘Sandman’ was asked about the intimidation factor that Dvalishvili carries with him. After all, it was as if his opponents took themselves out of their game. Sandhagen replied, “I don’t think Umar got taken too far out of his game. I do think that Sean did. I think that when you fight a guy like Merab, fighting tired just isn’t very fun, you know? You could do it, but it’s just not ideal. Especially for a very athletic guy like O’Malley. So I think that Umar did a good job there of being like, ‘I’m about to defend these shots. Like, we can wrestle, b—-.’

And that was the attitude that Sandhagen was after. But there’s another approach where people try to stay away from Merab Dvalishvili’s wrestling exchanges. ‘Sandman’ continued, “I kind of made that mistake a little bit against Umar, too, where I kinda ran from the wrestling exchanges a little bit too much. And it kinda made it so that amongst other things, I couldn’t really do what I usually do. So I learned from that fight, big time, that that’s not the way to approach someone that’s a really good grappler and is going to make you work for stuff. You kind of just have to be like, ‘Alright, b—-, this is what we’re doing,’ and be okay with that and accept that. And that makes it a lot easier.”

So, Cory Sandhagen has found his lessons from Dvalishvili’s fights against ‘Suga’ Sean and ‘Young Eagle’. But one thing still remains to be answered – How exactly can the #4 bantamweight contender beat the champion? Does he actually have a game plan for his probable title shot? 

Cory Sandhagen devises a plan to topple Merab Dvalishvili

Not too long ago, Sandhagen sat down together with Luke Thomas. And that’s where he laid down the blueprint to achieve victory over ‘The Machine’. He said, “The more that you move your feet, the more tired you’re gonna get, especially if that movement is backwards. You have to stand your ground against Merab.” This game plan seems pretty unconventional. But it might just work against a cardio-heavy fighter like Dvalishvili. 

The Elevation Fight Team representative continued, “Don’t run from him, and hit him when he comes in. Make your movement a lot smaller because it is all that footwork that really tires people out.” Most fighters move in circles in response to Dvalishvili’s pressure. They tend to stay away from engagement. And that’s where the champion takes control. He has a tendency to force his opponents to waste their energy trying to evade his attacks. Meanwhile, he works his commendable cardio to dominate in the later rounds. 

Now that Sandhagen has cracked the code against ‘The Machine’, we can definitely expect the battle between the two to get pretty interesting. But is the game plan enough to get ‘Sandman’ a victory over the champion? We’ll have to wait and watch the story unfold, starting with an official announcement of the bout. But do let us know if you think that Sandhagen’s plan will work against Dvalishvili.