A bantamweight fight between Cory Sandhagen and Umar Nurmagomedov has been announced as the main event for UFC Fight Night 226 in Nashville on August 5th.
Sandhagen is currently ranked No.4 in the division after picking up back-to-back victories in the past year, starting with a TKO stoppage of Song Yadong followed by a decision win over Marlon Vera in March.
Those wins helped Sandhagen get over the disappointment of losing out in his interim 135lb title fight against Petr Yan back in 2021, and a win over Nurmagomedov could help strengthen his case to get another title shot.
Brother of Bellator lightweight champion Usman and cousin of former UFC 155lb champ Khabib, the 27-year-old Umar Nurmagomedov has so far shown the ability to follow in the footsteps of his famous family members as he’s a perfect 16-0 in his career so far.
That includes four wins in a row since joining the UFC in early 2021, starting with a submission win over Sergey Morozov followed by another submission finish against Brian Kelleher.
He then went on to earn a decision win against Nate Maness, while earlier this year he picked up his most notable win yet when he KO’d Raoni Barcelos in the first round.
Sandhagen vs. Nurmagomedov joins a UFC Fight Night 226 card that also features Tatiana Suarez vs. Virna Jandiroba, Ovince Saint Preux vs. Ion Cutelaba and Dustin Jacoby vs. Kennedy Nzechukwu.
