Cory Sandhagen responds to critics doubting his wrestling ahead of Umar Nurmagomedov fight

Cory Sandhagen is ready to prove the doubters wrong against Umar Nurmagomedov.

Sandhagen (16-4 MMA, 9-3 UFC) meets Nurmagomedov (16-0 MMA, 4-0 UFC) in a UFC Fight Night main event Aug 5. at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn.

Nurmagomedov, cousin of former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, has shown off his elite grappling throughout his octagon tenure. Sandhagen is known for his striking, but mixed things up efficiently with his wrestling in his past win over Marlon Vera in March, where he was able to land three takedowns.

Sandhagen plans on showing that he can fend off Nurmagomedov’s grappling attack.

“When I read comments, I’ll scroll through and really only read the nice ones, and the second I get to a mean one I’m like, ‘Ah I don’t want that dumb stuff in my head,’ so then I stop reading them,” Sandhagen said in an interview with Fanatics View. “I do recall reading a few that were like, ‘Oh you’re going to get outwrestled, blah, blah, blah.’ But at the same time, I don’t think that anyone can really name a time outside of the (Aljamain) Sterling fight where I was on my back for longer than 10 seconds, 15 seconds.”

Undefeated Nurmagomedov is not just a grappler. The 27-year-old knocked out Raoni Barcelos in his past outing in January, but most of his professional wins have come by submission.

Sandhagen praised Nurmagomedov’s style of wrestling, explaining why it’s more effective than American wrestling.

“I also think that what the Dagestani fighters have done better than anyone else isn’t take people down, it’s their ability to hold people down that’s made them different than like American wrestlers or the wrestlers that have been in the UFC before,” Sandhagen said. “I think that the Dagestanis just figured out how to hold people down a lot better, which makes them look like a lot better wrestlers, which in MMA does make them a lot better wrestlers.

“So I think that you just have to know what’s going on in fighting, and I definitely know that I’m a pretty knowledgeable martial artist at this point. I think that I’m a very good fighter, and I think that I’m a very good thinker, and I think I’m definitely coming up with some really good ways to combat everything that I think Umar is going to be able to throw at me.”