Aurora’s own Cory Sandhagen picked up an impressive victory against Song Yadong at UFC Fight Night on Saturday. The fight took place at the Apex in Las Vegas and the two bantamweights put on a great performance.
Sandhagen (15-4) won for the first time since February of 2021 by TKO over Yadong after the doctor deemed Yadong was unable to continue after a brutal cut over his left eye caused by Sandhangen’s elbow. After the brutal cut in the first round, Sandhagen pushed the pace and continued to target the cut. The fight was waved off and while Sandhangen was disappointed the fight did not continue to the fifth round.
Sandhagen was coming off of 2 losses…one to former teammate TJ Dillashaw. The fight was extremely close but the judges declared Dillashaw the winner. Sandhagen learned a valuable lesson from that fight, that he needs to play the game. He is notably known for his striking and knees but he is also a brown belt in BJJ. Sandhagen went for several takedowns and changed his game to make sure he was scoring points in case the fight fell to the judges hands again.
Song was left guessing with the variety of strikes and mixing in of takedowns. Sandhagen was controlling the pace and putting constant pressure on Yadong. Sandhagen was very active on his feet, switching stances and was able to outstrike his opponent to the head and body.
Sandhagen started his martial arts journey at High Altitude Martial Arts. He started as a student and turned coach to our mixed martial arts fighters and our youth kickboxers. It is incredible to see how far he’s come and watch where he is going. While staying so humble and so kind. The students at High Altitude Martial Arts are starstruck but Coach Cory treats his teammates and students no different. The kids adore him and feel so blessed to be coached by him. He gives entire weekends to corner the kids in their kickboxing competitions. Coach Cory is helping us all channel our inner Cory and helping us all shine.
