Cory Sandhagen feels virtually unbeatable now.
Sandhagen is coming off back-to-back highlight reel knockout wins over Marlon Moraes and most recently, Frankie Edgar to all but cement himself as the next in line for a bantamweight title shot.
It’s all the more impressive considering those wins came following a disappointing first-round submission defeat to Aljamain Sterling last summer — his first loss in the UFC.
However, despite the nature of how that fight went down, Sandhagen is happy he went through that setback as he feels he has a completely different demeanor now.
“I do feel good,” Sandhagen told Joe Rogan in a recent podcast appearance. “I think it’s been noticeable the demeanor I go into the cage with. It’s noticeable in my brain too, like when I’m walking into the cage, I’m ready to hurt someone and I’m ready to snap and get that 10 weeks of thinking about it out of me.
“But yeah, I’m super happy with it. I feel like its own ability to figure out where you best perform. You don’t learn that unless you have a loss. … I had to lose and that’s how you learn that stuff. I really feel like when I’m in the back in that space, I feel 100% completely untouchable. That’s something that is very, very different than when I was fighting before.”
Sandhagen Wants To Hurt People
Sandhagen’s early UFC fights saw him being a polite and well-spoken fighter who just seemed happy to be in the promotion.
However, the switch has been flipped following the Sterling loss as the 28-year-old now has one goal in mind — to hurt his opponents.
“It was really uncomfortable for me because I like Hinduism, I like Eastern philosophy, Buddhism, being peaceful and a zen mind … and that was my philosophy until I was choked out by Sterling and opened my eyes and saw him running around and celebrating and I was like, ‘f*ck that.’
“Everyone that I go into a fight now with, I’m really trying to hurt. I want to be the guy that’s running around the cage while they’re opening up their eyes. It’s a different type of space to be in and it takes a lot of practice especially for someone like me who isn’t naturally like that, but that’s the game we’re in and that’s what I’m trying to do now.”
Things certainly don’t bode well for Sandhagen’s next opponent, who might just be former UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw.