{"id":534387,"date":"2026-03-13T20:03:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T20:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/534387\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T20:03:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T20:03:09","slug":"cory-sandhagen-reveals-why-he-believes-sean-omalley-is-avoiding-huge-matchup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/534387\/","title":{"rendered":"Cory Sandhagen Reveals Why He Believes Sean O’Malley Is Avoiding Huge Matchup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Perennial bantamweight contender Cory Sandhagen has been very vocal online calling for a fight with fellow American contender Sean O\u2019Malley<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Back in October last year Sandhagen suffered a disappointing decision defeat in a title bout against dominant champion, at the time, Merab Dvalishvili<\/a>. The fight came about after the American picked up a victory finishing former flyweight king Deiveson Figueiredo earlier in May that year. As one of the sports most active champions Dvalishvili wanted to break the record for most defences in a year after already racking up 2 defences of his 135lbs crown in the first half of 2025. <\/p>\n

\"MerabLAS VEGAS, NEVADA \u2013 OCTOBER 04: (L-R) Merab Dvalishvili of Georgia celebrates after defeating Cory Sandhagen of the United States by unanimous decision to win a bantamweight title bout in UFC 320<\/a>: Ankalaev vs Pereira 2 at T-Mobile Arena on October 04, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Since the loss not only Sandhagen but the MMA community have been gravitating and calling for a match up with O\u2019Malley. Reasoning behind this came from the fact both men had suffered losses to the champion at the time and with them both being exceptional strikers a fight would be a fan friendly scrap with potentially a highlight reel finish which both men have produced on countless occasions throughout their UFC tenures. <\/p>\n

\"SeanBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS \u2013 AUGUST 19: (R-L) Sean O\u2019Malley knocks out Aljamain Sterling in the UFC bantamweight championship fight during the UFC 292 event at TD Garden on August 19, 2023 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Cooper Neill\/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Cory Sandhagen Speaks on O\u2019Malley Match Up<\/p>\n

After the announcement of the whole UFC White House card at UFC 326 the appearance of Sean O\u2019Malley on the card did not surprise fans but the scheduled opponent across the octagon<\/a> certainly did. O\u2019Malley is lined up to face off with rising Canadian Aiemann Zahabi<\/a> riding a seven fight win streak. <\/p>\n

\"AiemannVANCOUVER, CANADA \u2013 OCTOBER 18: Aiemann Zahabi celebrates his victory over Marlon Vera during the UFC Fight Night at Rogers Arena on October 18, 2025 in Vancouver, Canada. (Photo by Jordan Jones\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The notion across the MMA community was why was this not against Sandhagen, the man himself gave his thoughts as to why a potential fight is yet to materialise when speaking to James Lynch on Home of Fight Youtube Channel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019m a tough fight for him man, Sean\u2019s whole thing is keeping space and being long and fighting from the outside and against me he won\u2019t be able to do that\u2026.. Sean\u2019s like really good at low-risk high reward types of matches. Which is kind of a shame because I don\u2019t think that that really speaks to people and the fans as much as big risks.\u201d He finished stating \u201cIt\u2019s just kind of a lame way to go about doing things in my opinion.\u201d <\/p>\n

Who at 135lbs would you like Cory Sandhagen to face next given the current landscape of the division?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Perennial bantamweight contender Cory Sandhagen has been very vocal online calling for a fight with fellow American contender…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82],"class_list":["post-534387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534387","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=534387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}