UFC Vegas 60 Beforemath: Bantamweight Barn Burner
Cory Sandhagen vs. Song Yadong fight analysis!
After the hectic week that was UFC 279, it is going to be refreshing to settle in on a new fight week that won’t be chaotic. Feelings of post UFC 209, 223 and 232 come to mind. This week, the best division has a high stakes fight as Cory Sandhagen looks to snap his two fight losing streak against Song Yadong, the heavy hitter out of Korea, at UFC Vegas 60. Let us get into this week’s Beforemath!
UFC Vegas 60 Tale of the Tape
Coming into UFC Vegas 60, Cory Sandhagen is on the worst skid of his career on the surface. He’s lost his last two fights against Petr Yan and TJ Dillashaw. But those fights, if reviewed, will show a different story. Sandhagen may have lost but he brought the two champions to the brink.
Sandhagen has a hell of a resume, win or lose. After losing to Aljamain Sterling in embarrassing fashion, Sandhagen rattled off two wins against former title challenger Marlon Moraes and former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar before the two losses (we will be reviewing this soon).
Song Yadong has quietly been rising in the rankings with a series of decent wins himself. In May of 2020, Yadong took a controversial win over Chito Vera who has gone on to be a top contender in the UFC’s best division. He had a hiccup against Kyler Phillips but bounced back with three wins.
After taking a split decision over the tricky Casey Kenney, Yadong beat Julio Arce with a spectacular finish and sent Marlon Moraes into retirement with another first round stoppage.
This fight is a bounce back for Cory Sandhagen. After losing two fights, he has the opportunity to win at a level down compared to what he’d been fighting. That’s no disrespect to Song Yadong who absolutely deserves a shot at the top of the division and this is his biggest opportunity to date.
Cory Sandhagen: Almost the best in the division
As mentioned, Cory Sandhagen has fought the best in the division. After losing his last two, there’s nobody to fight that makes sense. Everyone is trying to fight up. So Sandhagen must fight down. The fight is a good one for Sandhagen to regroup and get back to winning before he takes on a tougher challenge like Jose Aldo or Dominick Cruz, two fights likely in his near future.
For Sandhagen, he’s going to need to simply do what he does best at UFC Vegas 60. Sure, Song Yadong is powerful and can put anyone’s lights out. But so is John Lineker and Marlon Moraes and Sandhagen styled on them. He’s used to being in the fire, on the back foot, and looking to counter. It’s where the Colorado native thrives.
Sandhagen brings some very cool and unique things to the cage. He’s fast, lightning fast. His weakness, wrestling, has been patched up and he’s not a one trick pony. To beat Sandhagen you have to be better than him. He is going to go out, counter effectively, and put on a striking clinic like he usually does. I look for Sandhagen to welcome Yadong to the top five and show the world that he is among the elite in the division.
With Cory Sandhagen fighting, I want to take a moment to look at his career best knockout of Frankie Edgar. It’s a perfect example of how he sets up traps, uses footwork, and puts his opponents down.
While the fight didn’t last long, we learned a good bit against Edgar. From the jump, Sandhagen implemented a multi-faceted plan to negate the wrestling and hurt Edgar. He opens up with the low kick early to take away the stability of the lead leg of Edgar, a long term plan. He’s also setting up a devastating blow and (1) circling Edgar around the cage, getting the former lightweight champ to follow him and not cut off the cage. This is also anti wrestling as Edgar is not cutting off the cage to shoot a proper shot. Instead, he’s being led around like a bull and Sandhagen is the matador.
Next, (2) Sandhagen slows down and Frankie thinks that he finally has Sandhagen in a spot for some offense. He does not. As the great Admiral Ackbar famously said, “It’s a trap.” Sandhagen is loading up on his left leg that he will ultimately launch off from.
(3) With his kinetic energy loaded up on his left foot and his right leg primed to fire the shot, Sandhagen does something subtle yet effective. He’s been circling to his left the entire time and here he subtly changed direction to the right, which puts the strike going to the right as well. Frankie Edgar had become conditioned to going to his right (Sandhagen’s left) and this provided the opportunity for Sandhagen to maximize the flying knee with the change in direction.
In addition to the change in direction, (4) Sandhagen uses his right knee to throw the flying knee. This is done because of the direction he had been circling making the left foot the natural one to load up on. But also, Edgar was always subconsciously thinking “left” making the right flying knee that much sneakier. Then, of course, (5) dead body.
It is these subtle and clever traps Sandhagen brings to every fight and Yadong will have to deal with this. So, how does he do this?
Song Yadong: Good luck, bro
Seriously, Cory Sandhagen is hell for Petr Yan and TJ Dillashaw, two former bantamweight champions. For Song Yadong, it’s going to be that much more difficult. Yadong is shorter, has a shorter reach, and isn’t as technical as Sandhagen.
It used to be thought that wrestling was Sandhagen’s Achille’s Heel thanks to Aljamain Sterling. But in his past two fights that has not been the case. Dillashaw and Yan failed to effectively wrestle Sandhagen in their two fights. So we have to find ways to take away Sandhagen’s talents and gifts (reach, length, speed).
To do this, Yadong needs to make the fight ugly and get Sandhagen close. I’d like to see Yadong against the fence in this fight, pressing into Sandhagen, taking away his movement, and grinding the fight out. There he can work on Sandhagen’s superb cardio as well. In a five rounder, Sandhagen can run away with this fight and Song Yadong will have to be mindful of how good he is late.
More on slowing Sandhagen down, the body will be another avenue. Cory Sandhagen switches stances almost constantly throughout the fight and the kick to the midsection will open up. That and the hook to the body can put some damage down low on Sandhagen and put this fight within reach for Song Yadong.
Ultimately, I feel like this is Sandhagen’s fight to use. UFC Vegas 60 has some great fights but this one will be fireworks and worthy of a main event!
Don’t forget to tune in Sunday for Aftermath we’re we break down the fight that was at UFC Vegas 60!