Cory Sandhagen has a new opponent for his UFC On ESPN 50 headlining fight in Nashville on August 5th after Umar Nurmagomedov withdrew from the match-up due to a shoulder injury.
Now Sandhagen will be going up against Rob Font, who steps in on a little over two weeks notice in what’s now been switched to a 140lb catchweight fight.
The 31-year-old Sandhagen is coming off back-to-back wins over Song Yadong and Marlon Vera and had surprised many when he called out the highly-regarded Nurmagomedov for his next fight, even though he’s not far of title contention as the 4th ranked bantamweight contender, while his opponent is only No.11.
Now the question of whether that would have proven to be a wise decision or not will be left unanswered as he now prepares to take on the 36-year-old Font instead, who is coming off a TKO victory against Adrian Yanez back in April.
From a rankings perspective this fight makes more sense as Font is only two spots below him at No.6. The new match-up does mean that Font’s originally booked fight against Song Yadong at UFC 292 has now been scrapped.
Sandhagen vs. Font fronts a UFC On ESPN 50 card that also features the likes of Jessica Andrade vs. Tatiana Suarez, Dustin Jacoby vs. Kennedy Nzechukwu and Ovince Saint Preux vs. Ion Cutelaba.
