On July 24 we are getting what should be a very entertaining lightweight fight between Cory Sandhagen and TJ Dillashaw. An Aurora, Colorado native, Cory Sandhagen was very active growing up, playing basketball and other sports before discovering Mixed Martial Arts at age 17. Since then he picked up kickboxing, winning multiple World Kickboxing Association (WKA) titles and he’s been dedicated to becoming a better fighter.
His Mixed Martial Arts journey began at Nate Marquardt’s gym in Aurora, he then studied Psychology at the University of Colorado and joined Easton Training Center. Sandhagen went 7-1 at different promotions before joining the UFC in 2018. He made his debut at UFC on FOX 27 on January 27, 2018 with a second-round TKO win against Austin Arnett. Then, he beat Iuri Alcantara, Mario Bautista, John Lineker and Raphael Assuncao before Aljamain Sterling submitted him in the first round at UFC 250 on June 6. Sandhagen got back on track by stopping Marlon Moraes and Frankie Edgar in a combined 1 minute and 31 seconds. In his last fight, he knocked out Edgar with an incredible flying in knee in 28 seconds at UFC Vegas 18 on February 6.
Born: April 20, 1992
Age: 29
Country: United States
Height: 5’11″
Weight: 135 lbs
Reach: 70″
Stance: Switch
Association: Elevation Fight Team
Class: Bantamweight
Record: 14-2
TJ Dillashaw won the UFC bantamweight title on two separate occasions. First by stopping Renan Barao in the fifth round at UFC 173 on May 24, 2014 in one of the biggest championship upsets in UFC history and then he knocked out Cody Garbrandt in the second round at UFC 217 on November 4, 2017 to reclaim it. That second title reign ended unceremoniously because he tested positive for EPO in 2019 and accepted a two-year USADA sanction as a result.
Dillashaw maintains that his EPO usage was an isolated incident because he was struggling to cut weight down for his flyweight debut. It made no difference in his attempt to become a two-division champion as Henry Cejudo stopped him in 32 seconds at UFC Fight Night 143 on January 19, 2019. While he’s had an illustrious career and defended the bantamweight championship three times through two title runs, we can’t help but wonder if we can expect the same fighter physically and mentally and if his EPO usage played a part in his vicious back-to-back knockouts against Cody Garbrandt or not.
Born: February 7, 1986
Age: 35
Country: United States
Height: 5’6″
Weight: 135 lbs
Reach: 67″
Stance: Orthodox
Association: The Treigning Lab
Class: Bantamweight
Record: 16-4
