Cory Sandhagen says Dana White was ‘fine’ with crowd-displeasing performance at UFC Nashville

Cory Sandhagen didn’t upset Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President, Dana White, as much as everyone assumed this past weekend (Aug. 5, 2023).

“The Sandman” wrestled his way to a one-sided unanimous decision victory over Rob Font in UFC Nashville’s main event. The performance wasn’t received as the most exciting of bouts by fans and White appeared to walk out during round four, leaving most to assume he was unsatisfied.

According to Sandhagen, he and White have since talked and there were no issues.

“I actually already talked to Dana [White] about it,” Sandhagen said on The MMA Hour. “I was like, ‘Hey man, this happened, this happened, I really would’ve wanted to open up a lot more but didn’t feel comfortable.’ And he was real cool with it. He was fine with it. He just told me to heal up and he was real nice about it.

“There was just no weirdness [from White],” he added. “And in my last three opponents, I stopped Song Yadong, who’s a very, very good fighter and is going to continue to prove that he’s really good fighter. I know that he’s going to be one of the best in the division one day. I beat ‘Chito’ [Marlon Vera] by a mile and I beat Rob by two miles. You can’t really make too much of an argument that I don’t deserve the title shot next.

“I know that the last fight took out maybe a little bit of momentum, but you factor in all of the other things outside of the fight — and even inside the fight with the injury — and you can’t hate me too much for for the way that the fight played out,” Sandhagen concluded. “I still 50-45’d one of the best guys in the world on a bum arm.”

Sandhagen will be sidelined for the foreseeable future as he has revealed since the win that he suffered a fully torn triceps. Nevertheless, the win extended Sandhagen’s current win streak to three, putting him in line to face the winner of Aljamain Sterling vs. Sean O’Malley at UFC 292, which takes place later this month in Boston, Massachusetts.

But, a Sterling win combined with the Sandhagen injury would more than likely open the door wide open for none other than Merab Dvalishvili.

And if you’re on Team Serra-Longo, it couldn’t be scripted any better.

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