Cory Sandhagen is set to undergo an MRI this week to reveal the extent of the damage done from a submission attempt by Mario Bautista that left him limping for the final two rounds of their fight at UFC 329.
The veteran bantamweight contender took to Instagram on Monday to show off a gruesome injury to the back of his leg that developed after Bautista went for a Suloev stretch before transitioning to a kneebar just as the first round was coming to an end. As soon as Sandhagen returned to his feet, he was noticeably limping to his corner between rounds.
In the end, Bautista scored a unanimous decision win, which was cemented when he dropped Sandhagen in the third and final round with all three judges giving him the same 29-28 scores.
“Frickin bummer man. Losing in fighting is the most embarrassing thing ever. Sucks,” Sandhagen wrote on Instagram. “Pretty sure the knee bar tore my hamstring in the first (getting MRI this week). It kept locking out weird if I did certain things. So that kind of messed up my game plan.
“Congrats to Mario. He was well prepared. 1st was close but he won it with that knee bar. 2nd, I won (surprisingly cause leg was jacked). 3rd, I wanted to have the same round as before but got dropped. Gotta fight near perfect to win at the top. Something I need to get better at.”
The fight served as a chance at revenge for Bautista, who fell in his UFC debut when he met Sandhagen on short notice back in 2019. This time around, Bautista showed off massive improvements both on the feet and on the ground as he was able to get the job done against Sandhagen in the rematch.
A constant threat to anybody at 135 pounds, Sandhagen fell to 1-3 in his past four fights with the loss at UFC 329 after previously dropping decisions to Merab Dvalishvili and Umar Nurmagomedov. Now Sandhagen awaits final word on the severity of his injuries to determine when he’ll be able to compete again.
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