On September 17, 2022, the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) Las Vegas Fight Night featured the Bantamweight fight between America’s Cory Sandhagen and China’s Song Yadong. With a spectacular 4-round battle, Sandhagen gained victory through a massive elbow slice made in the second round, with the wound bleeding to a point that the referee ended the fight.
Sandhagen, 30 years old, ranks fourth in the Bantamweight division. His professional record consists of 14 wins and 4 losses — and the latter is a negligible statistic since he was defeated by Aljamain Sterling,, TJ Dillashaw, and Peter Yan, all either current or former champions. Sandhagen stands 5’11” with a reach of 70’, allowing him to challenge for the title this year, despite his previous losses.
Song Yadong, one of the best Chinese UFC artists, holds a professional record of 19 wins and 6 losses. At the age of 24, Song had already been ranked 10th in the division. He was also ranked as MMA’s best fighter at age 24 just a few days ago. If he wins this upcoming fight, there will be a chance for him to win the title fight.
In a video Interview by Combat Sports on Fanatics View, Sandhagen expressed his surprise when he knew he would be matched up with Song: “I thought I was gonna get someone a little bit higher up in the rankings, but I’m okay with it.” He gave a relatively high rating towards Song as “he’s fought some good guys, man, you know, as a young 24/25 year old guy, he’s got some experience underneath his belt, so he definitely needs to be taken seriously.”
On the other hand, Song was also rigorously preparing for the fight. Song owns a TikTok account and regularly posts videos about his views, training, and life. In his videos, Song was excited about this fight and undertook several high-intensity workouts including upper/lower body weight training, mock fights with athletes that have similar physical attributes as Sandhagen, which includes spar sessions and sandbag training.
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