{"id":171711,"date":"2025-09-26T23:42:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T23:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/171711\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T23:42:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T23:42:08","slug":"merab-dvalishvili-insists-cory-sandhagen-must-know-that-i-hit-hard-at-ufc-320","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/171711\/","title":{"rendered":"Merab Dvalishvili insists Cory Sandhagen ‘must know that I hit hard’ at UFC 320"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAS VEGAS \u2013 Despite Cory Sandhagen’s warning, UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili insists he’s not pulling any punches when they step into the octagon.<\/p>\n

Dvalishvili will look to make his third consecutive title defense at 135 pounds when he meets Sandhagen in the UFC 320 co-main event next Saturday, Oct. 4, at T-Mobile Arena. Dvalishvili has been a machine during a 13-fight winning streak in which he’s mostly used wrestling to take down and smother his opponents. But heading into UFC 320, Dvalishvili has said he’s looking to knock out Sandhagen<\/a>, which got a stern response from the challenger.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

“I know that he’s been saying that he’s gonna strike,” Sandhagen said in a recent interview with the New York Post<\/a>. “That’s not true. And if that is true, that’s a horrible idea. Don’t do that, Merab.”<\/p>\n

Sandhagen’s words apparently are not a deterrent.<\/p>\n

“He must know that I hit hard,” Dvalishvili told MMA Junkie and other reporters Friday after an open workout at Syndicate MMA. “He will see. … If Cory Sandhagen will stop my takedowns, I will knock him out.”<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Whether Dvalishvili is being truthful about his intent or simply employing some gamesmanship ahead of fight night remains to be seen. But the champ knows he has a lot to be wary of against Sandhagen.<\/p>\n

“It’s not only one thing (that he’s good at),” Dvalishvili said. “Cory Sandhagen does lot of things. You see how he knocked out Frankie Edgar with a flying knee. That’s special. He knocked out Marlon Moraes with a spinning kick. He submitted Bautista. \u2026 He’s tricky. He’s smart. He does a lot of things.”<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC 320: Merab Dvalishvili won’t pull punches vs. Cory Sandhagen<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2013 Despite Cory Sandhagen’s warning, UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili insists he’s not pulling any punches…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,21904,641,21903,638,17638,82,640],"class_list":{"0":"post-171711","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-cory-sandhagen","11":"tag-fighting","12":"tag-merab-dvalishvili","13":"tag-mma","14":"tag-sandhagen","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-ufc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}