The Effortless Violence of Cory Sandhagen
Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
“The way that can be spoken of is not the constant way”
Cory Sandhagen is an organic fighter. I don’t mean organic like Whole Foods-corporate-yuppie-Jeff Bezos organic. No, Sandhagen is the commune-living hippie digging wet, non-GMO tofu out of the cooler in the back of his aging Subaru organic. The tension that many fighters carry into the cage, the knowledge that this is a serious enterprise that could leave them with their brain shook and their money took, to paraphrase the great Joe Frazier, seems totally absent from him.
This is not to say he doesn’t take fighting seriously. He’s clearly well prepared and in great shape when he steps into the octagon. Rather, it’s an observation of how naturally fighting seems to come to him, how relaxed and playful he appears pumping out five or six jabs in a row, how little he seems to worry about the niceties of position in grappling exchanges if the chance to go for a submission presents itself. That Sandhagen fights like a fish swims or a bird flies doesn’t mean however that there isn’t some structure to his game, just that said structure is less of a rote method for approaching a fight and more a loose framework for his pugilistic creativity. Let’s take a look at how the Sandman expresses himself in the cage.
Striking
Sandhagen stands a lanky 5’11” in a division where the average height is closer to 5’6”. His physical dimensions give him the luxury of playing on the edge of most of his opponents’ ranges, but he’s no back foot sniper. Instead, Sandhagen can most often be found pressuring his opponents, but from just outside their effective striking distance.
The way he maintains that distance is with a constant, versatile jab and an arsenal of quick, relatively low risk kicks to the legs and body. Sandhagen’s lead hand (out of either stance, he switches often) is one of the best you’ll see in MMA. His jab is a boxer’s - it can hurt or annoy, come fast or slow, open the door or close it, and come two or three times on rhythm only to smash into your face on the off beat a moment later. Sandhagen is adept at disrupting his opponent’s timing and distance with the jab, as well as drawing return punches for his favorite pull counter.
Sandhagen probes with the jab while circling to the left. Two on beat touches followed by a faster, off rhythm punch draw his opponent John Lineker’s hands together to guard his centerline, at which point Sandhagen rips a hard left hook to the body. Knowing that Lineker will reliably return fire Sandhagen keeps his right hand high, tucks his chin behind his left shoulder, and throws a few more jabs to cover his exit ending with a snapping front kick up the middle.
This sequence is illustrative not only of how effective Sandhagen’s lead hand is in controlling range and tempo, but also how his general demeanor in the cage can frustrate his opposition. Sandhagen isn’t loading up on most of these punches, nor is he particularly concerned if any individual strike does an outsize amount of damage. He’s just throwing, playing with rhythm and placement, and taking the openings created (like for the left body hook) as they come. His relaxation means it’s hard for his opponent to get a read on when the next strike is coming and that lack of tension also allows Sandhagen to maintain a deceptively high pace. He might not always be hurting you, but he’s always doing something. Sandhagen has mentioned that growing up he was a big fan of Dominick Cruz, and it’s clear that he’s absorbed Cruz’s penchant for variety and using that variety to accumulate reads as the fight goes on (as well some of Cruz’s less fundamentally sound habits like naked stance switching which we’ll touch on later).
It would be an overstatement to call Sandhagen a pressure counter fighter as he’s usually looking to create openings for his own offense rather than explicitly trying to draw shots to counter, but he does show a clear awareness that punches are going to be coming back over his jab. He will often stand with his hands low and his head forward over his lead foot with the intent of pull countering off his lead hand attack. This occasionally gets him in trouble but for the most part he’s good at retreating to his rear foot and returning fire without compromising his stance.
Fighting out of a southpaw stance Sandhagen comes forward tapping his opponent’s lead hand. A front kick backs Lineker up to the fence, and when he comes forward with a looping right Sandhagen calmly slides out of the way before following up with a jab and shifting right hand.
In this exchange Sandhagen catches a right overhand and fires back with a hard left. Lineker slips that punch as his own jab pops Sandhagen’s head backward, but Cory is ready for the follow up right hand and pulls coming back with a hook/uppercut combo of his own. Sandhagen then pulls away from Lineker’s right and ends the sequence closing the door with a jab.
The themes of disruption and creating mental pressure through constant attack aren’t limited to Sandhagen’s striking. His grappling game features much the same sort of pressure, though on the mat he creates it by initiating scrambles and attacking submissions at every opportunity.
Wrestling and Grappling
While Sandhagen does shoot the occasional takedown, no one would confuse him with his idol Dominick Cruz. His takedown game tends to be opportunistic and isn’t a major element of his standup. More interesting are his defensive wrestling game and submission grappling. In keeping with his flowing style Sandhagen often doesn’t seem to put much effort into fighting off the initial shot instead preferring to disrupt the finish of the takedown with submission attempts and back attacks.
Perennial bantamweight contender Raphael Assuncao shoots in on Sandhagen’s legs during the third round of their 2019 clash. The entry is clean and Sandhagen doesn’t have the chance to sprawl. Instead, Sandhagen looks to crotch lock and turn Assuncao. When he’s unable to connect his hands Sandhagen builds up his base and scrambles out the back door as Assuncao attempts to take his back.
When Sandhagen does get a submission chain started he’s very dangerous. Against game late replacement Mario Bautista he was able to stall Bautista’s momentum and lock in a kimura, transitioning to what would be a fight ending arm bar.
Bautista enters on a takedown up against the cage, but Sandhagen is able to peel Bautista’s right arm off his hips. Seeing the arm isolated he reaches over the elbow, locks in a kimura, and rolls Bautista through. Baustita does a good job staying on his back to avoid the kimura finish but he’s unable to clear his elbow from Sandhagen’s grip allowing the Sandman to transition to an arm bar. As Sandhagen sits back to throw his leg over the head Bautista is able to sit up, but Sandhagen stays with the submission finishing belly down.
Sandhagen has a natural feel for keeping the scramble going with a series of attacks. In this extended sequence against Raphael Assuncao Sandhagen finds himself fighting off the back attack of a dangerous grappler. How he turns the position to his advantage is unconventional but effective.
Assuncao is able to get to a bodylock off a caught kick and drops Sandhagen into a crab ride. Sandhagen tries to turn and strip grips but Assuncao does a good job maintaining position. When one of Assuncao’s legs slips in between Sandhagen’s Cory doesn’t miss the chance to start attacking the leg and defusing Assuncao’s back control. There’s no immediate danger of a leg lock finish here, but Assuncao is forced to defend against a transition into a leg locking position which gives Sandhagen time to spin to the top and start passing guard.
Continuing the sequence Sandhagen secures an underhook and starts passing Assuncao’s half guard. Sandhagen makes the odd decision of releasing his underhook which gives Assuncao the chance to kick Sandhagen forward and come up on a leg. Sandhagen is able to limp leg out and kick all the way over Assuncao’s body to start working towards his back, a full reversal of the initial position.
Sandhagen’s constantly attacking style makes his fights exciting for fans, but there are some instances in which he could stand to be a little more rote. Like other natural fighters such as Carlos Condit who prefer to flow with what their opponents give them rather than shut down their offense Sandhagen plays a high risk high reward game. Against the wrong opponent, there are aspects of his style that can be exploited.
Vulnerabilities
While the parallels between their games shouldn’t be overstated, one thing that Sandhagen seems to have adopted from Dominick’s Cruz’s game is his use of stance switching. Sandhagen will frequently change stance, sometimes shifting with punches, sometimes changing stances off kicks, and sometimes simply switching stance in space. Those stance switches give him different looks at his opponent can make him hard to read, but it also means that there are many instances in his fights where Sandhagen’s footing and ability to move are compromised. A big part of the reason most coaches are stringent on maintaining a good stance at all times is that being in stance allows you to move in response to an attack and to take a punch from your opponent. If a fighter gets blitzed while he’s out of stance there’s often little he can do to avoid or counter his opponent’s blows, and shots that land tend to have outsize impact. This happened to Sandhagen a few times in his fight with John Lineker.
Sandhagen circles the cage in front of opponent John Lineker. Notice that instead of sliding in stance, Sandhagen is simply walking with crossed feet while nearly in Lineker’s range. He drops into stance as Lineker comes forward, but doesn’t seem prepared for the blitz when it comes. As Lineker walks forward throwing punches Sandhagen squares himself and falls backwards out of stance into the cage wall.
Again Sandhagen crosses his feet while circling. While he gets his hands up and avoids serious damage, Lineker is still able to time his entry to take advantage of Sandhagen being out of stance and square him against the cage.
In addition to catching him out of stance, Sandhagen’s opponents can also take advantage of his occasional lack of defensive responsibility when attacking. When punching Sandhagen is pretty good about getting down behind his shoulder and keeping his other hand high, but he has a tendency to drop his hands while kicking. This gets him in trouble when opponents are able to time his kicks and throw same time or just after Sandhagen’s attack.
Sandhagen throws a non-committal front kick dropping his right hand while not raising his right shoulder to shield his chin. Lineker eats the kick and is able to come back over the top stumbling Sandhagen with a left hook.
Throwing a naked low kick Sandhagen’s stutter step entry gives his intentions away. He’s not able to get his right hand back up quickly enough to block Lineker’s counter left and has to eat the punch.
In addition to his stance issues and lack of defensive responsibility when kicking Sandhagen’s counter wrestling style could also be vulnerable to a more skilled wrestler and top control artist than anyone he has fought thus far in his UFC career. His next fight against Frankie Edgar January 2020 will provide a stern test of the young contender’s skills as Edgar can take advantage of a compromised stance and is certainly capable of winning a fight through takedowns and top control. However, Sandhagen’s last fight against Assuncao saw him staying in stance and hiding his stance switches much more consistently, and he avoided taking serious damage on the return against the dangerous Brazilian counter puncher.
A win against Edgar should put Sandhagen in position to fight for the bantamweight title, interim or otherwise. Clashes with champion Henry Cejudo or other top contenders Petr Yan and Aljamain Sterling would be must see TV and are the sorts of top level fights I expect to see Sandhagen in for the next few years at least of his UFC career.