Cory Sandhagen doesn\u2019t train with just anybody, and he sees something special in Elias Rodriguez.<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old Rodriguez looks to make it 4-0 in the pro ranks when he faces eight-fight veteran Nick Fields on Friday at LFA 230. Rodriguez has stopped all three of his opponents inside of two rounds.<\/p>\n
Sandhagen has followed Rodriguez\u2019s MMA journey from the very beginning, and recognized he was special immediately. In fact, Sandhagen believes Rodriguez is ready for the big show right now.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love Elias, me and Elias are good friends now,\u201d Sandhagen told MMA Fighting. \u201cI think we started training a lot together probably around COVID times, just because we\u2019re only allowed to have a certain amount of training partners and I\u2019ve kind of always done a really good job in my career of like figuring out which young fighter is pretty talented, but also is going to be at the gym as much as me and all of that stuff, because those guys are pretty easy to get really good, really quick. Instead of having to bounce around and go to 1,000 gyms, I\u2019d rather just make the people around me really good.<\/p>\n
\u201cAround COVID time is when we weren\u2019t allowed to have a lot of training partners and that\u2019s when me and Elias really started training together a good chunk of time. He was still really young then \u2013 probably still like maybe 18 or 19 or 20, or something around then. But yeah, that\u2019s when we started training and he\u2019s become an absolute killer.I want to get him in the UFC this year. I think that he could easily be, I know that things move really quick and things happen or whatever, but I could easily see him in the top-five, top-10 in the UFC sometime in 2028.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s incredible, man. I think he\u2019s going to go all the way with this thing and I\u2019m pumped to just be there for it. So it\u2019s cool and I got a really good training partner to train with. He\u2019s one of the few guys that I feel like I go with that can really whip my ass if I don\u2019t show up, and even when I do show up on that day, now I feel like he sometimes gets the better of me still. So it\u2019s cool to have someone that can push me in that way too and it\u2019s cool that it\u2019s him, because I felt like I got to just play a small part in making him that good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rodriguez was a wrestler and jiu-jitsu practitioner growing up, but it wasn\u2019t until he was in his late teens where the idea of being an MMA fighter became a thing. After going 5-0 as an amateur \u2014 which includes winning and defending a regional title \u2014 it was time to make the transition to the pro ranks.<\/p>\n
With a pair of knockouts and a submission under his belt during his 3-0 start in LFA, Rodriguez reflects on his journey through the sport, and with Sandhagen as one of his training partners.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember the first time I ever MMA sparred was against Cory and Justin Wetzel, who fights in the PFL now, and it was during COVID time. I was like 19, and they whooped my ass so bad. They weren\u2019t even trying. I got dropped to the body so many times. I thought I was nasty.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd now just to hear him say that and how far we\u2019ve come where I was undefeated in my career, I\u2019m still undefeated as a pro, I\u2019m going to remain undefeated this weekend, it\u2019s just nice to kind of hear that progress has been coming to fruition and it\u2019s starting to come to a head now. So it\u2019s really great to hear from Cory.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked who he would compare Rodriguez to that\u2019s currently in the UFC, Sandhagen was nearly at a loss for words, seeing Rodriguez as a fighter who came into the gym with a mirroring mentality to establishing a style that\u2019s unique to only him.<\/p>\n
As Rodriguez\u2019s striking game continues to evolve, he compares it to one of the most vicious knockout artists \u2014and one of the few two-division champions \u2014 the UFC has seen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he kind of punches like [Alex] Pereira, I guess \u2013 like the, the types of things that he does,\u201d Sandhagen said. \u201cBut he fights a little bit lower to the floor and, obviously, it\u2019s a different weight class, so he has to be a little bit more mobile and he\u2019s a little bit faster. But I would say that his striking is, I guess, a little bit like that in the way that he punches, and then the way that he defends himself too.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut in grappling, I don\u2019t really know that he\u2019s like too many other people. He\u2019s kind of like any 25-year-old gangly guy in that he\u2019ll whip around and make his body do shit that might break my back but won\u2019t break his. So he kind of has that style of jiu-jitsu, it\u2019s kind of a tangly style of jiu-jitsu versus maybe a raw-strength, power-through-someone type of jiu-jitsu. And yeah, I don\u2019t really know who I would compare it to in the UFC that I think would do it justice because Elias is a super good grappler. But, man,I\u2019m telling you right now, when he gets into the UFC just because of the way that he fights and because of the level of opponents that he\u2019s grown up sparring against and stuff like that, it\u2019s not going to be long until the entire UFC, and big portions of the world are going to know about him, because he has that style that\u2019s fun to watch, and the dude likes getting finishes too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rodriguez is not a fighter who feels he needs more experience before he makes his mark in the UFC. In fact, if the UFC called him right now for a short-notice fight, he would jump on the opportunity.<\/p>\n
First things first, Rodriguez has an opportunity to open more eyes as he competes for LFA for the fourth time \u2014 an organization that has become one of the UFC\u2019s top feeder promotions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I can beat people in the UFC for sure,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201c100 percent, I know I can do that. I think I know how big of a fish I am in the ponds, and I got to work my way up as much as I need to do that, but I know this: I watched the fights, I watched the 45ers. I watched the guys at the top and I know I can beat those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cory Sandhagen doesn\u2019t train with just anybody, and he sees something special in Elias Rodriguez. The 25-year-old Rodriguez…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396,14855],"class_list":{"0":"post-583665","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc","15":"tag-ufc-news","16":"tag-videos"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}