Cory Sandhagen doesn’t think UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili’s 20 takedowns landed on him is an accurate reflection of their fight.
Sandhagen (18-6 MMA, 11-5 UFC) lost a unanimous decision to Dvalishvili in the UFC 320 co-main event earlier this month. Dvalishvili’s 20 takedowns landed was one shy of Khabib Nurmagomedov’s single-fight record of 21. “The Machine” attempted 47 takedowns on Sandhagen.
Sandhagen explained why he doesn’t believe Dvalishvili’s feat is that impressive.
“I mean, the 20 takedowns is kind of funny to me because I think that if you watch that fight, you’re not going to be like, ‘Wow, Merab’s wrestling was super impressive,’ because what’s a takedown without any control?” Sandhagen said on “The Ariel Helwani Show.” “It’s kind of just, like, mat returns don’t hurt. You know what I mean?
“Like, it’s not like he was picking me up and slamming me. If you just bump me down to my knees and I just have to get back up, that, to me, is not like a quote-unquote MMA takedown. Maybe it scores points in wrestling, but I mean, you’re not doing any damage.”
Dvalishvili (21-4 MMA, 14-2 UFC) had Sandhagen badly hurt on the feet in Round 2, but that’s not the only thing that surprised Sandhagen.
“I know who’s working harder in those positions, and it’s Merab,” Sandhagen said. “Like, it’s way harder to hold someone down and continue to mat return someone than it is to continue to get up. I was really surprised, though, at Merab being so adamant about keeping his hands locked. The ‘S’ grip is not great for making things tight so that you can pick someone up and slam him.
“It’s really, really good for just keeping a lock on someone, and that’s the type of lock he was using. I was actually really surprised that he was really adamant about staying on those body locks for so long. A lot of his other fights, he’ll kind of fight for that a little bit but then let go and start punching. And I was kind of expecting him to do that, but he made me fight his grip the whole time, and he milked a lot of clock doing that. It’s a gamey way to win.”
