Sean O’Malley thinks Cory Sandhagen fighting Umar Nurmagomdov is a gangster move but isn’t a smart one.
Sandhagen is set to headline UFC Nashville against Nurmagomedov in a crucial fight for the bantamweight division. It is Nurmagomedov’s first chance to fight a ranked opponent and he gets the fourth-ranked bantamweight in Sandhagen. With that, O’Malley says Sandhagen taking the fight is not smart as he isn’t following Chael Sonnen’s main rule of fighting.
“It depends, businessman-wise. Not smart. If you look at it like that’s gangster, it’s definitely gangster. But, what does Chael say? Fight the worst guy for the most amount of money. He’s doing the opposite. He’s fighting not for a lot of money and fighting the best guy,” Sean O’Malley said on his YouTube channel. “So in that sense, he’s f*****g not smart, but it’s gangster. I think it’s gangster he’s fighting Umar.”
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As Sean O’Malley says, Cory Sandhagen is making a gangster move by fighting maybe the best guy at bantamweight in Umar Nurmagomedov. The Dagestani native hasn’t fought anyone in the top-15 so it’s uncertain if he is that good, but everything shows that he truly is a top-five guy in this division.
However, if Sandhagen beats Nurmagomedov, he steals a lot of the Dagestani’s native and could earn him a title shot. As O’Malley says, he is taking a big risk by taking this fight, but perhaps it all works out in the end.
Sean O’Malley, meanwhile, is set to headline UFC 292 in Boston on August 19 against the current champ, Aljamain Sterling. Should O’Malley win, there is a chance his first title defense would be against the winner of Sandhagen-Nurmagomedov which is also why ‘Suga’ is interested to see how it plays out. To earn the title shot, O’Malley edged out a split decision win over Petr Yan back in October.
