"They can rebook this fight" - Ali Abdelaziz "respects" Cory Sandhagen for his openness to potential fight with Umar Nurmagomedov
UFC bantamweight Cory Sandhagen has earned the respect of fellow contender Umar Nurmagomedov's agent Ali Abdelaziz.
The Dominance MMA founder and CEO recently spoke about Nurmagomedov's abilities in an interview with The Schmo and mentioned that top fighters wanted to take him on.
“Nobody in the top 15 in the UFC can touch his feet. He’s a different breed. I believe he’s gonna be one of the best champion out of this region from the UFC. You have no choice but loving him. You see guys like Cory Sandhagen said ‘I wanna fight Umar’."
He further stated:
"You see O’Malley said they want to fight Umar, right? I believe nobody in the top 15 can even beat [him in] a round. The only way I can see Umar lose, somebody catch him with something, right. Like a lucky punch but outside that, his striking is different level.”
Abdelaziz then praised Sandhagen for being open to a match against Nurmagomedov. The two were scheduled to fight last year at UFC Fight Night 226 but the Russian withdrew due to injury and was replaced by Rob Font.
“Doesn’t matter [who he fights]. Umar will fight whatever, I see Cory Sandhagen and respect Cory Sandhagen a lot. He said if Umar look good, they can rebook this fight. They supposed to fight, Umar pulled out, he got injured. At the end of the day, is the most important to beat this guy on Saturday. Nothing else matters.”
Check out Ali Abdelaziz's full comments below (3:00):
What did Cory Sandhagen say about fighting Umar Nurmagomedov?
Last week, Cory Sandhagen discussed a potential fight against Umar Nurmagomedov and agreed to take him on conditionally.
Sandhagen stated that if Nurmagomedov gets a strong win against Bekzat Almakhan at UFC Fight Night 238 and he does not get a title shot himself, he would want to fight the 'Young Eagle'.
Sandhagen said in an interview on MMA Today:
"Where I stand with Umar now is if he gets a good win on March 2nd, and he looks good, and he does awesome, and they don't give me the title shot next, do me and Umar at International Fight Week. Obviously there's a lot of things that need to have happened before that happens, but I'm still open to Umar. I just felt like I was one fight ahead of him, and now that he has the opportunity to not make that the case, then I'm definitely back open to it."
Check out Sandhagen's comments below: