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“The way that can be spoken of is not the constant way”

Cory Sandhagen is an organic fighter. I don’t mean organic like Whole Foods-corporate-yuppie-Jeff Bezos organic. No, Sandhagen is the commune-living hippie digging wet, non-GMO tofu out of the cooler in the back of his aging Subaru organic. The tension that many fighters carry into the cage, the knowledge that this is a serious enterprise that could leave them with their brain shook and their money took, to paraphrase the great Joe Frazier, seems totally absent from him.

This is not to say he doesn’t take fighting seriously. He’s clearly well prepared and in great shape when he steps into the octagon. Rather, it’s an observation of how naturally fighting seems to come to him, how relaxed and playful he appears pumping out five or six jabs in a row, how little he seems to worry about the niceties of position in grappling exchanges if the chance to go for a submission presents itself. That Sandhagen fights like a fish swims or a bird flies doesn’t mean however that there isn’t some structure to his game, just that said structure is less of a rote method for approaching a fight and more a loose framework for his pugilistic creativity. Let’s take a look at how the Sandman expresses himself in the cage.

Striking

Sandhagen stands a lanky 5’11” in a division where the average height is closer to 5’6”. His physical dimensions give him the luxury of playing on the edge of most of his opponents’ ranges, but he’s no back foot sniper. Instead, Sandhagen can most often be found pressuring his opponents, but from just outside their effective striking distance.

The way he maintains that distance is with a constant, versatile jab and an arsenal of quick, relatively low risk kicks to the legs and body. Sandhagen’s lead hand (out of either stance, he switches often) is one of the best you’ll see in MMA. His jab is a boxer’s - it can hurt or annoy, come fast or slow, open the door or close it, and come two or three times on rhythm only to smash into your face on the off beat a moment later. Sandhagen is adept at disrupting his opponent’s timing and distance with the jab, as well as drawing return punches for his favorite pull counter.