A bantamweight fight between Cory Sandhagen and Umar Nurmagomedov will headline UFC Fight Night 246 in Abu Dhabi on August 3rd.
This fight was originally scheduled to take place last August, but a shoulder injury forced Nurmagomedov out of the match-up.
The 32-year-old Sandhagen went on to fight Rob Font instead and earned a unanimous decision victory. That extended his current winning streak to three fights, having also TKO’d Song Yadong and claimed a split-decision win over Marlon Vera since losing out in his attempt to win the interim bantamweight title back in 2021.
The No.2 ranked Sandhagen now returns to the match-up with the No.10 ranked Nurmagomedov, who is a perfect 17-0 in his MMA career to date.
That includes five wins in the UFC so far for the cousin of retired UFC legend Khabib Nurmagomedov and brother of Bellator lightweight champion Usman Nurmagomedov.
He started his UFC run off with back-to-back submission victories over Sergey Morozov and Brian Kelleher, followed by a decision victory against Nate Maness, while he’s since earned a 1st round KO finish of Raoni Barcelos and most recently a decision victory over Bekzat Almakhan.
Sandhagen vs. Nurmagomedov is currently the only fight so far confirmed for the Abu Dhabi event.