Cory Sandhagen praises Petr Yan, still wants to avenge UFC loss

Cory Sandhagen has his sights set on Petr Yan after UFC Fight Night 248.

Yan (18-5 MMA, 10-4 UFC) picked up his second consecutive win when he defeated Deiveison Figueiredo (24-4-1 MMA, 13-4-1 UFC) by unanimous decision in this past Saturday’s headliner in Macau.

Sandhagen (17-5 MMA, 10-4 UFC) wasn’t surprised to see the former champion get his hand raised.

“It was a really interesting fight. Yan looked amazing to be honest,” Sandhagen said on his YouTube channel. “I kind of figured that the fight would go the way that it was just because Figgy is more chaotic, square version. Yan is a much bladed, technical guy.

“That’s not a knock on Figgy. Figgy usually makes his chaos work, but you kind of saw that that’s the way the fight was going to go. Congrats to Yan, he looked really great. Figgy is a really good matchup for him to look really good in specifically.”

Sandhagen fought Yan for the interim bantamweight title at UFC 267 in October 2021. After winning Round 1, Sandhagen was outstruck in a unanimous decision loss. He rebounded with three straight wins berfore falling short against Umar Nurmagomedov at UFC on ABC 7 in August.

With Sandhagen just one spot behind Yan in the UFC’s bantamweight rankings, he’d like an opportunity to run things back – a proposition Daniel Cormier agrees with.

“Congrats to Yan, maybe we’ll do it next,” Sandhagen said. “I don’t really know what the division’s going on. I haven’t really heard too much. I was hoping to hear probably sometime next week about the direction that they are going to go in because I know they were waiting on this fight to play out. Congrats to Yan. I still want to get that one back. We’ll see if it’ll be next or not.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 248.